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Looking for an rare icon...
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06-18-2008, 12:26 PM
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KahiroSamo
Join Date
Oct 2005
Posts
461
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Hello David
The scene you describe is one of a series of events in the life of the Prophet Elijah. An icon which only shows this scene would be exceedingly rare, if not non-existent. This scene would, however, be found in a "life" icon of the Prophet, one which has a central panel depicting him (in frontal pose, or sitting at the mouth of his cave, looking up at the raven bringing him bread, or being taken up to heaven in the fiery chariot), surrounded by smaller panels, each showing a scene from his life. A parallel would be a church mural, where a number of scenes from his life are painted, often merging into each other, as a kind of continuous narrative.
I have two images of this scene on file, both are from church murals, from the 18thC Cathedral of Prophet Elijah in Yaroslavl, and from the 14thC Gracanica monastery in Serbia. The Yaroslavl scene shows the Prophet about to behead one of the pagan priests, the Gracanica fresco shows the scene as you described it. The latter image has suffered much damage over the centuries.
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