Description

Icons such as this one, which depict the guardian angel in combination with other saints, are often commissioned. The depicted saints often refer to the client and his or her family. This reference can be related to a name, a profession or an event in the life of the client. This finely painted house icon depicts the guardian angel between Saints Peter of Cappadocia and Nadezhda. It is not unlikely that a couple with these names commissioned this icon. Nadezhda is almost never depicted independently in an icon, but can always be seen in combination with her mother Sophia van Rome and her two sisters Vera and Lyubov. The name Nadezhda means “Hope”, the names of the sisters “Faith” and “Love”. In the edge of the icon, the Mandylion, that non-manmade representation of the face of Christ, can be seen.