Steatite icon with the Deposition at the monastery of Iveron on Mount Athos

Abstract

This paper deals with a steatite icon of the Deposition, which is enshrined in the sacristy of Iveron monastery. The icon consists of two parts, one rectangular of light grey-greenish colour, with a smooth surface, and one arched of a darker colouring, porous texture and a rougher surface. The rectangular, older part of the icon is a fragment of a twelfth century icon from which the lower left angle and fragments of the right and upper side are lost. The fracture of this twelfth century icon led to its restitution which took place in the fourteenth century (the arched part), as it appears by the stylistic data and the inscriptions. At the same time the icon was embedded in the wooden panel.

Keywords

• Byzantine art
• steatite icon
• iconography
• Deposition
• Iveron
• Mt. Athos