Vatican Museums

This triptych consists of three panels, carved and originally gilded, joined together with hinges. Both the inner face of the central component and the corresponding part of the side pieces are decorated in relief with figures of saints, lined up in horizontal bands separated by busts in clypei. The upper half depicts the scene of the Dèesis inspired by the ceremonial style of the imperial court (Christ in the act of blessing, with a book in his hands, enthroned between the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist, who raise their arms in a gesture of intercession). The lower half portrays the Apostles, identified in writing on the respective figures, and on the side doors, the military saints of the upper line accompany the martyrs of the lower register, interspersed with exempla of the Eastern tradition. Even the half-length figures depicted in the clypei follow this logic of transcendent progression, from the bishops and patriarchs of militant orthodoxy visible on the icon with its doors closed, which then lead to the liturgical action evoked inside, thus creating a kind of “figurative litany”.