The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 20, 2024

Icon of the New Testament Trinity

Icon of the New Testament Trinity

c. 1450
Tempera and gold on wood panel (poplar)
35.5 x 62.5 x 2.7 cm (14 x 24 5/8 x 1 1/16 in.)
Severance and Greta Millikin Trust 2016.32
Location: 105 Byzantine

Did You Know?

More than just a breakfast food, eggs are used to make the tempera paint used in this painting.

Description

This icon depicts an important subject in Orthodox Christian art, the three corresponding figures of the single godhead known as the Holy Trinity. The Trinity is represented here in a composition known as the “New Testament Trinity,” which features Christ and God the Father seated on a bench with a dove representing the Holy Spirit between them. The central field is occupied by a large wooden throne with gold highlights on which Christ (left) and the Ancient of the Days (God the Father as Christ in old age) are seated. The Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, hovers within an eight-pointed star that signifies the eighth day, the future eon.

On either side of the Trinity are two hymnographers, authors of hymns of praise, both identified by gold letters outlined in red—Saint Kosmas (about 675–752) on the left and Saint Joseph (about 812/818–about 886) on the right. They both suspend scrolls from round-arched windows. The icon likely was part of a church templon, the barrier that separated the nave from the sanctuary in an Orthodox church. It is not signed or dated; however, careful analysis of the painting’s style and technique places it in Constantinople around 1450, just prior to the city’s fall to the Ottomans in 1453. It represents a moment when Byzantine painting reached a brilliant crescendo.
  • Halvor Bagge [Danish, 1866-1939?]
    1888-1955
    Professor Einar Frank-Utzon [Danish, 1888-1985], Copenhagen, Denmark
    1955-2013
    Henrik Schleppegrel, Copenhagen, Denmark
    2013
    (Bruun-Rasmussen Auctioneers, Copenhagen, sale, June 6, 2013)
    2013-2016
    (Temple Gallery, London) sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2016-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
  • Bagge, Halvor. Exhibition of the Halvor Bagge Collection of Byzantine Paintings, Carvings, Manuscripts, Embroideries, Etc. New York: [publisher not identified], 1915. p. 9, No. 42
    Fleischer, Jens. "Rundt om en søjlehelgen" Meddelelser fra Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (1993) pp. 59-71
    Fliegel, Stephen N. “Acquisition Highlights 2016: Medieval Art.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 57, no. 2 (March/April 2017): 14. Reproduced: P. 7, 14; Mentioned: P. 6, 14.
  • New York, Ehrich Galleries, 5th Avenue, 1915
    Gothenberg, Rohsska Konstslojdmuseet, 1915
    Lund University Art Museum, 1915
    Berlin, Kustgewerbnuseum, 1914
    Danish Museum of Decorative Arts, 1913.
    Oslo, Museum of Decorative Arts, 1913.
  • {{cite web|title=Icon of the New Testament Trinity|url=false|author=|year=c. 1450|access-date=20 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2016.32