152. Icon on wood, "Jesus Christ - King and High Priest", painted by Constantin Boghină, Brașov, 1845, museum piece, collection item
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152. Icon on wood, "Jesus Christ - King and High Priest", painted by Constantin Boghină, Brașov, 1845, museum piece, collection item
Starting price:
EUR 1.400
Sold
EUR 1.400
tempera and colloidal gold on wood, 48 x 36.5 cm, signed, dated and located below, in white: "Constandin. Boghina. painter. master. brasovan. year 1845"
Research information
In the author's creation we also find an icon on glass with the same derivation, painted in the same year and published in "A spiritual geography of the Transylvanian glass icon", by Ana Dumitran, Bucharest, 2018 on page XXXVIII, fig. 29, preserved in the collection of the Săliște Archpriest's Museum.
Jesus is portrayed enthroned, in His capacity as King and High Priest, seated on two blue and green cushions. He holds the Gospel open at the Gospel of Matthew (25:34) with his left hand and blesses with his right. He is robed in a blue sticharion, decorated with gold embroidered cuffs, a red sacos, also with borders and a richly decorated omophorion with gold flowers and crosses. Around his neck he wears a gold and enamel engolpion. The monumental throne is decorated with columns and panels ornamented with gold and floral motifs of stylized acanthus wreaths, traced graphically. It is made in a baroque manner, an aspect given primarily by the play of volutes and counter-volutes. At the top of the columns, two angels are depicted. On either side of the throne, the intercessors are represented in pious attitudes, thus giving the icon the quality of a Deisis. The Mother of the Lord wears a white maphorion and a blue palla, and Saint John the Baptist wears a green himation.
The pomp, wealth, and opulence that the entire icon emanates is characteristic of European Neoclassicism, which began to make its presence felt in icon painting practiced in our country. The throne occupies an important place in the composition. The ornamentation of the costume worn by Jesus is meticulously reproduced; notable is the attempt of the author to depict the silky brocade fabrics, the omophorion, or the sacos fabric embroidered with plant motifs.
The facial models were executed with the help of fine brushwork, the volumes being rendered on a brun proplasma, with fine transitions from light to shadow, obtained with an ochre and red gradient, a manner specific to neoclassical icons, constitutes clear evidence of the influence of icon painting from the mid 19th century.
What surprises about this icon is its pronounced decorativism, expressed especially by the chromatic range of Jesus's garments with a dominant red-orange and blue that vibrates on the background of the icon. (M.B.)
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