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Auction archive: Lot number 32

Anonymous Russian artist and scribe

Estimate
£20,000 - £30,000
ca. US$27,733 - US$41,599
Price realised:
£25,000
ca. US$34,666
Auction archive: Lot number 32

Anonymous Russian artist and scribe

Estimate
£20,000 - £30,000
ca. US$27,733 - US$41,599
Price realised:
£25,000
ca. US$34,666
Beschreibung:

Anonymous Russian artist and scribe Miracles of the Shuya-Smolensk icon of the Mother of God and other texts, in Russian, decorated manuscript on paper [Russia, c.1760s-1770s] A rare 18th-century copy of an account of the miracles associated with the Virgin Hodegetria icon of Shuya and other devotional texts in Russian, illustrated with two attractive pen-and-wash miniatures. 205 x 168mm. i + 209, complete, sporadic modern pencil foliation followed here, 19 lines, text block: c.155 x c.110mm, rubrics in red, calligraphic initials in red scattered throughout, ornamental title-page with a decorated border of acanthus surmounted by three spired domes, two full-page miniatures in ink and wash (title-page decoration partly added on pasted-down slips of paper, title-page darkened and margins water-stained, further water-staining to the margins throughout, generally not affecting the text). Contemporary dark brown calf over wooden boards, remains of catches (corners, head and tail of spine with small losses, clasps missing). Provenance: (1) Perhaps commissioned for or first owned by ‘Alexis Sentsov’: his ownership inscription, dated 1771, on f.134. (2) ?19th-century inventory number ‘no 22’ added to f.iv. (3) Yamada Hisanari (1907-1987), Japanese Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1961-1963). (4) Austrian private collection. Content: A compilation of devotional texts in Russian, including the Miracles of the Shuya-Smolensk icon of the Mother of God (ff.21-100); a list of 127 icons depicting the Virgin Hodegetria in Russia (ff.114-127); and an account of the transfer of the relics of St Alexius (ff.136-148). In 1654, the town of Shuya on the Teza River was saved from a deadly plague by a miraculous depiction of the so-called Smolensk Hodegetria painted with ‘with all reverence and haste’ by the icon painter Gerasim Tikhonov Ikonnikov; in 1666, the local priesthood compiled an account of the by-now-numerous miracles of healing associated with the icon and submitted this testimony to the Orthodox hierarchy. The present manuscript contains a copy of this account and is one of only a handful of pre-1900 manuscripts known to survive: a study carried out by Shuya priest Evlampiy Ivanovich Pravdin between 1895 and 1900 identified only five or six extant copies of the text he published as ‘Miracles of the Shuya-Smolensk icon of the Mother of God’ (1902). The subjects of the two full-page miniatures on inserted leaves are: the Virgin Hodegetria (f.20v) and St Alexius, metropolitan of Kiev (135v).

Auction archive: Lot number 32
Auction:
Datum:
14 Jul 2021
Auction house:
Christie's
King Street, St. James's 8
London, SW1Y 6QT
United Kingdom
+44 (0)20 7839 9060
+44 (0)20 73892869
Beschreibung:

Anonymous Russian artist and scribe Miracles of the Shuya-Smolensk icon of the Mother of God and other texts, in Russian, decorated manuscript on paper [Russia, c.1760s-1770s] A rare 18th-century copy of an account of the miracles associated with the Virgin Hodegetria icon of Shuya and other devotional texts in Russian, illustrated with two attractive pen-and-wash miniatures. 205 x 168mm. i + 209, complete, sporadic modern pencil foliation followed here, 19 lines, text block: c.155 x c.110mm, rubrics in red, calligraphic initials in red scattered throughout, ornamental title-page with a decorated border of acanthus surmounted by three spired domes, two full-page miniatures in ink and wash (title-page decoration partly added on pasted-down slips of paper, title-page darkened and margins water-stained, further water-staining to the margins throughout, generally not affecting the text). Contemporary dark brown calf over wooden boards, remains of catches (corners, head and tail of spine with small losses, clasps missing). Provenance: (1) Perhaps commissioned for or first owned by ‘Alexis Sentsov’: his ownership inscription, dated 1771, on f.134. (2) ?19th-century inventory number ‘no 22’ added to f.iv. (3) Yamada Hisanari (1907-1987), Japanese Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1961-1963). (4) Austrian private collection. Content: A compilation of devotional texts in Russian, including the Miracles of the Shuya-Smolensk icon of the Mother of God (ff.21-100); a list of 127 icons depicting the Virgin Hodegetria in Russia (ff.114-127); and an account of the transfer of the relics of St Alexius (ff.136-148). In 1654, the town of Shuya on the Teza River was saved from a deadly plague by a miraculous depiction of the so-called Smolensk Hodegetria painted with ‘with all reverence and haste’ by the icon painter Gerasim Tikhonov Ikonnikov; in 1666, the local priesthood compiled an account of the by-now-numerous miracles of healing associated with the icon and submitted this testimony to the Orthodox hierarchy. The present manuscript contains a copy of this account and is one of only a handful of pre-1900 manuscripts known to survive: a study carried out by Shuya priest Evlampiy Ivanovich Pravdin between 1895 and 1900 identified only five or six extant copies of the text he published as ‘Miracles of the Shuya-Smolensk icon of the Mother of God’ (1902). The subjects of the two full-page miniatures on inserted leaves are: the Virgin Hodegetria (f.20v) and St Alexius, metropolitan of Kiev (135v).

Auction archive: Lot number 32
Auction:
Datum:
14 Jul 2021
Auction house:
Christie's
King Street, St. James's 8
London, SW1Y 6QT
United Kingdom
+44 (0)20 7839 9060
+44 (0)20 73892869
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