Icon of the Ascension of Jesus Christ. 1743






Polotsk icon of Ascension of Jesus Christ belongs to the art of the so-called "lower baroque", which was common in Uniate churches in the 18th century. During the restoration, an inscription was uncovered in the lower left margin indicating the date of creation and the place of origin - “Ten obraz Wniebowstapienia Panskiego S. r. ... do cerkwi Ekimanskiej ... 1743 "(This is the image of the Ascension of the Lord ... for Ekiman church ... 1743).
The icon painter departed from the precision of Byzantine iconography and gave the Gospel event features of reality. He used an expressive, but simplified composition, painted democratic images of the apostles, using a peculiar ingenuous plastic and muted colour gamut. The ridge of clouds is separating heavenly sphere from the earth sphere where Jesus is standing. A thin strip of blue sky is separating Jesus from the apostles. At the bottom of the icon, the revealed Gospel is depicted as evidence of the historical reality of the Ascension of Christ.