Panagia Pantanassa – Gold Leaf with Sandblasting – Mount Athos

Description

Gold Leaf with Sandblasting featuring Panagia Pantanassa

Panagia Pantanassa is depicted enthroned on an intricately carved wooden throne, holding Christ in her arms. The Theotokos wears a greenish tunic and a purple mantle. She is surrounded by the archangels Michael and Gabriel, who bow reverently toward the Mother of God holding the Child.

The throne of Panagia is designed with free perspective that does not follow natural laws. The space is symbolic. Since the law of the straight-line propagation of light does not apply, the depicted faces and objects cast no shadows, and are portrayed without weight or volume. The composition is characterized by simple beauty.

Gold Leaf with Sandblasting: Characteristics

In the icon depicting Panagia Pantanassa, the iconographer monk used the technique of gold leafing to create a work of unique beauty. Gold leafing is a type of thermographic technique. Thermography is the method in which very thin metallic foil is applied to surfaces such as wood, leather, cardboard, or plastic by pressing a heated embossed plate (cliché) onto the surface. Around the icon, the technique of sandblasting is also used. Sandblasting is a process that achieves the erosion of part or all of a surface by blasting sand under pressure.

Dimensions: 14.5 x 18 x 0.5 cm
Origin: Mount Athos