The Premier Site for Russian Culture
St John the Baptist was the last prophet of the Old Testament. He predicted the coming of the Messiah and baptised Christ in the River Jordan. The image of John the Baptist played an important role i...
Our Lady of Vladimir belongs to the Tenderness (Greek: Eleusa ) type of Orthodox icons. The original work was painted in the first third of the twelfth century and brought from Constantinople to Kiev...
Images of Jesus Christ as a boy with His arms crossed on His chest, sporting angel’s wings and a halo with crossed quadrangles, first appeared in wall-paintings in Greece, Mount Athos and the Balkans...
The iconography of the Last Judgement had largely formed in Byzantine art by the ninth century. The theme of the Second Coming, however, was so important for Christianity that its depiction in art co...
The composition of the Only Son was formed in the middle of the sixteenth century, in connection with work on a group of icons intended for the private chapel of Ivan the Terrible – the Annunciation ...
The composition incorporates the concept of the mystical union of Christ and the Church. Christ sits on a throne as the King of the World and High Priest, dressed in the robes of the Byzantine empero...
The antimension (Greek: in place of an altar ) is a decorated cloth that fulfils the same functions as a communion table. It is usually adorned with an engraved or hand-drawn image of the Entombment,...
Jerusalem was the ancient capital of the Hebrew kingdom of Judah. The town can be seen from the Mount of Olives, where Christ made his prophecies of its apocalyptic fall. Jesus’ last days on earth ar...
The town of Bethlehem lies five miles to the south of Jerusalem. Two thousand years ago, it was a small settlement inhabited by farmers and shepherds. It was to Bethlehem that Mary and Joseph came to...
The Church of the Nativity of Christ is one of the earliest Christian churches in the Holy Land. It was founded by Empress Helena in 326, at the traditional site of the birth of Jesus Christ. The pla...