Tyragetia (Oct 2018)
Icons “Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane” from the collection of the National Museum of History of Moldova
Abstract
This article continues the theme of the Savior in the collection of icons of the National Museum of History of Moldova. This time we present icons dedicated to the prayer of Jesus Christ on the night before his imprisonment. The episode of prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane precedes the Passion cycle and is described in detail in the synoptic Gospels. The apostles’ descriptions highlight a few distinct moments: Jesus Christ praying kneeling or prostrate to the ground; an angel who comes to support and strengthen Christ; the sleeping apostles Peter, James and John, Jesus Christ awakens them. In iconographic compositions, all the described episodes can be presented simultaneously or separately. This gospel story is reflected in five icons from the museum’s collection, three of them representing similar compositions and the other two are different; one depicts an episode that occurs only in Luke 22:43. Two icons come from the churches in the villages of Boroseni (Râşcani) and Nicoreni (Drochia), closed during the time of communist atheism; they entered the collection of the National Museum of History of Moldova in 1980. Two other icons were transferred to the museum in 1996 by the Customs Department of the Republic of Moldova. We have no data about the origin of the fifth icon, but its large dimensions indicate that this icon adorned one of the local churches. These icons dated from the 19th and 20th centuries are painted on wood, in tempera or oil on gold leaf, and decorated with imitation of enamel. They are published for the first time, and their introduction into scientific circuit will complete the list of Bessarabian icons kept in museum collections.
