Double-Sided Encolpion with the Virgin and Child and Three Saints in the Collection of the Princes Czartoryski in Krakow
Double-Sided Encolpion with the Virgin and Child and Three Saints in the Collection of the Princes Czartoryski in Krakow

Author(s): Mirosław Piotr Kruk
Subject(s): History, Archaeology, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Cultural history, Visual Arts, History of Art
Published by: Издательский дом Stratum, Университет «Высшая антропологическая школа»
Keywords: Byzantium; Hilandar; Simonopetra; Czartoryski; encolpion; St. Sabbas; St. Sava; St. Simeon; minor arts
Summary/Abstract: One of the most precious Byzantine objects in the collection of the Princes Czartoryski Museum in Krakow is the double-sided pendant in the form of a carved wooden medallion (9.8 × 7.2 × 1.5 cm) with a refined openwork filigree silver-gilt mount studded with pearls and garnets (inv. no. MNK XIII-475). There is a depiction of the Virgin and Child on the front and of three saints with a temple model on the back. Its features suggest that it was made in the second half of the 18th century, probably in one of the monastic centers on Mount Athos, perhaps at Simonopetra or — even more plausibly — at Hilandar; and all the more so if the figures depicted in the medallion actually are St. Sava, the first Serbian Archbishop, and St. Simeon, his father and the first Serbian king.

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