Deesis

Deesis In Greek, Deesis means supplication, plea. The term formed on the basis of liturgical texts, including the Eucharistic thanks-giving prayer and supplication prayers, in which the Church resorts to the intercession of the Mother of God, John the Baptist, angels, apostles, martyrs, and saints. The visual representation of Deesis, known since the 6th-7th c., developed in several variants after the period of iconoclasm when the repression of the cult of icons ceased in Byzantium, from where the depiction spread through the sphere of Eastern Christianity. In the basic iconographic variant, in addition to the central figure of Christ, there is the Mother of God (on the right) and John the Baptist (on the left) - the greatest intercessors for humanity (see S.12824MŁ). The composition of the figures is always hierarchical. On the territory of the Russian Tsardom, which identified itself with the legacy of Rus, a movement of opponents of the liturgical reforms started by Patriarch Nikon was growing since the middle of the 17th c. The persecuted adherents of the old tradition, known as the Old Ritualists or Old Believers, developed their own centres of production of objects of worship, including cast metal folding icons or 'skladnie'. Among the diverse visual themes of the folding icons, there were the portrayals of Deesis. The displayed icon is one of the examples of a depiction in which the figure of Christ with the revering Mother of God and John the Baptist was placed in the middle, preserved wing of the triptych. On the side wings, which were not preserved in the displayed icon, three depictions of saints particularly venerated by the Old Believers tended to appear; most frequently, on the left: Metropolitan Philip (strangled in 1569 by order of Ivan the Terrible), John the Evangelist, and St. Nicholas, and on the right: the Guardian Angel, St. Zosimas and Sabbatius of Solovki. In the Old Believers' tradition, icons like these were called 'nines' because of the number of figures depicted. Teresa Bagińska-Żurawska https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9243-3967