Icon - Angel of the Great Council

Tempera on board, 2 sponges, gilt; 36 x 31 x 4.2 cm.
Russia, 18th/19th century.
Tripartite painting; top left quatrefoil depicting Christ before the incarnation - the Angel of the Great Council (icon also called Waiting, Blissful Silence) - a young man in a wide-sleeved dalmatic, with a nimbus in the form of an 8-pointed star. At the top right - a depiction of the grotto of seven sleeping brothers (Maximianus, Marchus, Martinius, Dionysius, John, Serapion, Constantius), persecuted for their Christian faith by Emperor Decius (they fell into sleep for 200 years and awoke during the reign of Theodosius II).
In the lower quarters - figures of 4 saints (Dmitri, Niphon, John of Damascus and Doe).
The bordure of the painting is wide, amaranth.