Russian icon of the 19th century.

Russian icon of the 19th century.
"Archangel, Pantocrator and saints."
Tempera and gold on wood.
It has cracks, slight pictorial losses and retouching.
Measurements: 53.5 x 43.5 x 3 cm.
The icon in question represents Saint Michael the Archangel surrounded by an assembly of saints, guarded from above by the figure of Christ in Pantrocrator. The frontality of the oldest orthodox models is broken to favor softer and more natural gestures, but the icon, of excellent quality, follows the orthodox precepts in the application of drawing and color, in the solution of traces, symmetrical and finely outlined . The fine tunics are draped in broken folds, illuminated by intense chromaticism.
Of Greek origin, the term "icon" corresponds to the meaning of image. In relation to art, it is presented to us as the name of a series of pictorial works made on wooden boards, generally portable in nature, based on secular tradition and sacred in nature. Icons are works that transcend the material and the deep symbolism with which they are impregnated. The art of icons emerged as part of the artistic expressions of Byzantine culture, developed in the environment of the eastern Mediterranean during the Middle Ages and up to the date of the disappearance of the Empire, 1453. The production of icons beyond the 15th century is known as “post-Byzantine”, a context in which distinctive features involved in the social and cultural histories of the peoples who professed Orthodox Christianity developed.