Christ Pantocrator
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About this painting
The hand lifted in blessing is not a greeting but a creed: three fingers touching for the Trinity, two raised for the two natures of the Saviour. The jewelled book in his other arm, cross and pearls on the cover, is the Word made visible — doctrine in both hands.
Encaustic on panel, sixth century: when the iconoclasts came, Sinai lay under Islamic, not Byzantine, rule, out of reach. Overpaint and dry desert air left it almost undamaged; cleaning stripped that overpaint away in 1962. One of the earliest surviving icons of Jesus was saved by being disfigured.
Sources: The Byzantine Legacy (thebyzantinelegacy.com), Christ Pantocrator, Sinai · Podles, Mary Elizabeth. 'The Blessing Christ.' Touchstone Magazine. · Dossier institution/medium field, scholarly consensus · Dossier commission field · Chatzidakis 1968; Weitzmann 1976, per dossier commission field · McClanan, Anne. 'Art and architecture of Saint Catherine's Monastery at Mount Sinai.' Smarthistory, September 22, 2020 · 'Christ Pantocrator, Palladion of the Monastery of Sinai.' Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai (published on Mused) · Hendrix, David. 'Icon of Christ Pantocrator.' The Byzantine Legacy, 2016
Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 13,120 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.