Jesus Christ Pantocrator Silk Screen Icon – Engraved Metal & Enamel Design

Description

Pantocrator means “Almighty” or “All-powerful”. In Iconography, Christ the Pantocrator represents a specific depiction of Christ, and this painting is one of the first of Christ in the early church and remains the central icon. This 16th century icon traditionally shows Christ holding a book and his hand raised to make the sign of a blessing. It is the work of hagiographer Michael or Michelis Damaskinos of the Cretan School. The original work is in the Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens.

The painting of Christ Pantocrator was one of the first images of Christ developed early in the Christian Church and remains a central icon of today. Christ holds The Bible in his left hand and makes the gesture of teaching or of blessing with his right hand. The oldest known surviving icon of Christ Pantocrator was painted in encaustic on panel in the 6th or 7th century. It survived the period of destruction of icons during the Iconoclastic disputes that twice took aim at the Christian church, 726 to 787 and 814 to 842. It was preserved in Saint Catherine’s Monastery in the desert of the Sinai. The gessoed panel, intricately painted using a wax medium on a wooden panel, had been roughly overpainted around the face and hands at some time around the thirteenth century. When the overpainting was cleaned in 1962, the ancient painting was revealed to be of high-quality icon, most likely produced in Constantinople. The name of Christ is written on each side of the halo, as IC and XC. Christ’s fingers are depicted in a pose that represents the letters IC, X and C, thereby making the Christogram ICXC for “Jesus Christ”.