Tempera

2005.02

Betsy Scheuring

Gift

Gift of Betsy Scheuring

1800 - 1850

19th Century

12-1/4 in

10-1/4 in

1 in

Spirit Made Tangible: The Scheuring Icon Collection (2006)

Cultural/Historical Context

A monk sees a vision of three angels and bows down before them in great agitation, the edges of his black mantle fluttering with excitement. There appears a tall building in the background, probably a monastery, and it is surrounded by trees. The angels, larger in scale than the monk, move in unison and seem to float above the ground, their feet barely touching the earth. The vibrant red of their clothing and the gold of their wings boldly contrast with the somber colors in the rest of the composition. One angel gently takes the monk’s hand. This could be the story of St. Alexander Svirsky, who founded a monastery in the northern wilderness of Russia on the Svir River in 1487. He had a vision of the Holy Trinity in the form of three angels who appeared to him and instructed him to build a church. This story is related in a distant way to an earlier appearance of the Trinity called “the Hospitality of Abraham” or the “Old Testament Trinity.” It is recounted in Genesis 18:1-19, in which Abraham met three men, whom he later realized were angels, and gave them food and drink in the usual hospitality offered to strangers. They prophesied the birth of a son to his wife Sarah, even though she was old and beyond the age of childbearing. In fact, she later gave birth to Isaac, and their prophecy was fulfilled. This prophecy became a prefiguration of the Annunciation and the angels were a symbol of the Holy Trinity. However, the present scene may instead represent Saint Kornily, who founded the Kornilyevo-Komelsky Monastery in 1515.