The Holy Apostles Peter and Paul - 18th century icon from the Museum of Byzantine Culture of Thessalonikitranslated

The Museum of Byzantine Culture of Thessaloniki houses a particularly valuable portable icon from the beginning of the 18th century, from the Dimitrios Oikonomopoulos Collection, which depicts the foremost Apostles Peter and Paul. It is a work of egg tempera on wood, which follows a pictorial type that goes back to the great Cretan painter Angelos Akotando, to whom the original model of the composition is attributed. The surviving work is a later iteration of this established iconographic type, which had a profound effect on post-Byzantine iconography.

The composition is simple but particularly eloquent.

The two Apostles are depicted standing, facing each other, converging towards the center of the image, where they jointly hold an elaborate church effigy. At the same time, the Apostle Peter holds the keys, the hallmark of his apostolic ministry, while the Apostle Paul carries a closed Gospel, a symbol of his divinely inspired preaching and theological teaching. At the bottom of the image, a small kneeling figure of a donor can be seen, with his hands crossed on his chest, according to the usual practice of post-Byzantine votive offerings...