Description in Icons, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2004, cat. no. 39:
From Festival tier of an iconostasis.
Early 15th century, Novgorod or Moscow
NMI 296

Wood: Linden (Tilia sp.), egg tempera
on canvas. Panel made of two boards
with two splines inlaid across the panel
(both lost); partly grounded.

PROVENANCE: Vilhelm Assarsson (”Novgorod,
beginning of 15th century”); Åke
Wiberg; Anders Wiberg; Acquired by the
museum 1965
EXHIBITIONS: Gothenburg 1970, no 6; Helsinki
1970, no 6; Stockholm 1973, no 87;
Stockholm 1988, no 8; Copenhagen 1996,
no 167.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Assarssons samling (9:3);
NM annual report 1965, pp 16–17; Reuter -
swärd 1973, p 111, fig. 16; Abel 1978:1, fig. 10;
Abel 1981, p 256; Quenot 1987, p 176; Abel
1989:1, p 43; Abel 1989:2, pp 10, 13; Abel
1996:2; Abel 1998, pp 23, 29, 54–57
CONSERVATION: Restored prior to entering
NM: crack through upper left part repaired
with metal clips at top edge; scattered
retouches; gold on background and borders
removed with scattered remains; insertions
of ground on background and borders with
artificial craquelure; cleaned; letters and red
border reconstructed; NM 1965: mending
of crack, consolidation of paint, cleaned,
retouched and varnished (B. Titov); 1974:
crack in panel, with damage to paint layers,
mended; 1988: conservation for blistering
and paint flaking. Losses of paint layer and
ground along crack in upper left border;
surface abraded; nails and nail holes from
metal cover on background and borders

This is one of the central works in the
collection, both artistically and iconographically.
The solemn, elongated
figures, the expressive faces are among
the characteristics putting it in a class
of its own. Others are the many antiquated
aspects in the depiction of this
motif; the positioning of Adam and
Eve on the same side as Christ, the re -
duced number of figures and the plac -
ing of the protagonists in front of the
cave rather than above it.1 Formerly
this icon was believed to have originat -
ed in Pskov, even though it lacks, for
example, the armorial positioning of
Adam and Eve which is typical of
Pskov, and although the colouring is
more typical of Novgorod. If anything
it appears to be a transposition into a
genuine Novgorod key of the Easter
icon from the well-known feast tier in
the Sofia Cathedral, Novgorod, which
was probably executed by a painter
from Byzantium or the Balkans in
about 1340. I. Shalina has taken this to
be a work from Moscow, with the consistently
expressive lyrical character
and the painted halos constituting a
Hesychastic element.2
This icon probably had its place in
the Feast tier of an iconostasis.

1 Smirnova 1976, pp 182–183.
2 Shalina, Russian Museum, St Petersburg, on a
visit to the Museum in June 2000.