A winged St John the Baptist icon in the British Museum

A large icon measuring 89 x 64 cm now in the Department of Prehisory and Europe at the British Museum, depicts a winged St John the Baptist in the forsaken (Fig. 1). The panel consists of sum of two units separate pieces of wood--the right individual is much wider than the left (42 cm and 22 cm respectively)--held together with sum of two units wooden pegs which are visible upon its reverse. This side of the narrow piece of forest-land bears two recesses, while sum of two units modern hinges have also been added here. Traces of fabric are still visible between the loam and the wood support. A label upon the back, attached when the icon was in the possession of the fane Gallery, London, describes it as 'St John the Forerunner, Byzantine or Cretan, c 1500'

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

The icon depicts a tall, thin, winged and haloed St John the Baptist in the forsaken full-length and in three-quarter view to the left He wears a azure camel-hair skin underneath an olive-green himation. His hair is dishevelled and curly in its lower part, as is his straggly beard. His wings, spread wide upon his back, are blue upon the inside matching his camel-hair skin, and brown upon the outside. With his left hand he supports above his left shoulder a staff topped by the agency of a cross, and holds an lay open scroll with an inscription written in black in hellenic capitals. The text reads as follows:

[ARABIC body NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] ('You diocese what they suffer, O Word of omnipotence those who condemn the faults of the loathsome, and therefore, Herod, not being able to bear my condemnation, sundered my head, Saviour').

With a gesturing indicative of speech, his right arm is reach forthed to the left and bent at the flexure towards the upper left hand corner of the icon, where Christ is depicted in half extent Christ appears within a part of heaven, in three quarter view to the right, and converses the sign of blessing upon John with his right hand. He wears a of gold himation and bears a plain (i.e. not cruciform) halo, to the right of which the gold grecian capital letters 'XC' are visible. The background of this section is dark blue with gold striations, encompassed by a light blue band. sum of two units ranges of grey mountains dominate the background flanking John: a large single to the left and a smaller single to the right, rendered in the typical Byzantine manner, that is, unnaturally precipitous and with flat surfaces attached to each other at right angles. In the bottom left-hand corner, the remains of a small plant can be glimpsed, as well as an inscription, now harshly damaged, which is only partially decipherable, and reads: [ARABIC body NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] ('prayer of the servant'). Although the condition of the icon is generally serviceable it is obvious that it has been chop down. At the right, it is just the lower parts of John's left wing which are missing; however, at the bottom, as mentioned above, the two the plant and the inscription have been truncated, along with the Baptist's feet while at the left judging from other icons depicting the same bring under rule the mountain range presumably reach outed further. There is no indication that the icon has been significantly cropp at the top, although upon the upper part of the border, to the left the of gold background is missing, as it is in part upon the left and right cutting sides The undertone of John's and Christ's muscle and fat is dark brown with reddish highlights upon the forehead, cheeks, neck, and upon John's bare arm and hands.

The British Museum icon is a characteristic example of the popular post-Byzantine iconographic mark of the winged St John the Baptist. Although the possibility of a Komnenian prototype has been intimateed (the Komnenian dynasty ruled in Constantinople between 1081 and 1185) (1) the image is actually inspired through prototypes dating from the Palaiologan period, which lasted flora 1259 to the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 (2) This emblem became extremely popular, and was widely disseminated in post-Byzantine Cretan icon painting from the next to the first half of the fifteenth hundred to the end of the seventeenth hundred (3) It is generally accepted that it was introduced into post-Byzantine Cretan icon painting by dint of the leading artist Angelos, whose sum of two units signed icons with the winged St John are considered the first examples in what was to become a rich line of production (Figs. 2 and 3) (4) Based upon the surviving examples, the main characteristics of the impressed sign may be defined as follows: the winged saint in three-quarter profile, facing either to the right or to the left conversing with Christ and clad in a camel-hair shirt with a himation, (5) holding a staff and an render free of access scroll, with the same dodecasyllabic true copy seen in our icon; sum of two units mountain ranges, a tree with an axe; the parted head of the Baptist in a bowl; and, occasionally, a turtle-dove (Fig. 2) (6) It is, therefore, likely that our icon originally had a tree with an axe and a goblet with John's head, elements which are invariably included in icons of this emblem The tree with an axe is inspired by the agency of the Gospel according to St Matthew, Chapter III, line of poetry 10, and the Gospel according to St Luke Chapter III, stich 9 ('And now also the axe is laid unto the foundation of the trees: therefore each tree which bringeth not forth advantageous fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire'), (7) while the goblet with the Baptist's head is a concern not only to his beheading (Gospel according to St Matthew, Chapter XIV, line s 1-12; Gospel according to St Mark, Chapter VI, line s 16 29), but also to the feast of the Finding of the Baptist's Head, (8) and, moreover, has liturgical connotations. (9) In the majority of the surviving examples, John clinchs his staff--a symbol which, according to Schwartz, alludes to his martyrdom (10)--in his left hand, in brow of him and upright, as seen for example, in the Angelos icons (Figs. 2 and 3) Nevertheless, examples where the Baptist, in a more naturalistic manner, quiets his staff on his left shoulder, as seen in our icon, also exist (Fig. 4) The words upon the scroll, common in this iconographic emblem are not, however, found in any textual source. Moreover, they do not appear either in earlier depictions of the winged Baptist or in any of his other iconographic impressed signs (11) This, together with its limited use, powerfully suggests that the text was especially compos for the schedule of the Baptist in images of this impressed sign (12) and it has been pro pos that the painter Angelos could have also been responsible for its wording.