St. John the Evangelist and the Scribe Prokhorus
Painting
Egg tempera paint on slightly curved wood panel. The wood is painted deep red and is followed by brown, yellow, and finally a thin bright red border of the focal image. There is a Cyrillic inscription on top in yellow on an olive green background. The image shows Saint John with his feet on a purple pedestal telling the scribe Prokhorus scripture, who writes it in a book with a quill pen and who's feet are on a teal pedestal. Both men have gold leaf halos. The landscape features pink and grey mountains on an olive green background with the arm of Jesus in the upper left corner.
2005.02.073
Panel
Tempera
The Scheuring Icon Collection
2005.02
Betsy Scheuring
Gift
Gift of Betsy Scheuring
1875 - 1900
Russia
8-3/4 in
7 in
1-1/4 in
Spirit Made Tangible: The Scheuring Icon Collection (2006)
Surveying the Sacred: Analysis of the Scheuring Collection of Eastern Orthodox Icons (2025)
Cultural/Historical Context
St. John is dictating the Gospel to his scribe in a desert landscape (for an iconographic explanation, see 2005.02.060). In the present version, the main colors are pastels, mostly pinks and green, used in a simple, uncrowded composition. The jagged mountains are fanciful and not meant to appear realistic, as in traditional Byzantine style.
