Bulgarian Hand Painted Icon of The Holy Teophany

Icon measures: 15 x 20 cm
The icon is hand made, tempera painted on dark stained wood
Created by: K.Georgieva, Qualified icon painter

We offer you a hand painted icon of The Holy Teophany . The icon is made in Bulgaria, according to the original medieval Bulgarian orthodox painting traditions (17th c.). For its make was used dark stained wood. The icon is tempera painted and depicts the baptism of Christ in the Jordan river. At the top of the icon,the opening of heaven is symbolized by the segment of a circle. This circle signifies God's presence and witness at the event. Emanating from the circle are rays of light surrounding the Holy Spirit, depicted in the figure of a dove descending upon our Savior. The red color symbolize divinity and the transcending of the limits of mortality and the Gold is to symbolize the power of spirit.

The icon makes an excellent gift for your friends and family and it will remind you of the intransient values we, human beings, have a tendency to forget about now and then.

General information In 865 the Bulgarians were THE FIRST Slavonic people to adopt Christianity from Byzantium as its official religion.
Since then the icon, venerated as an especially sacred object of cult and rite, has developed as a fundamental part of the Bulgarian art from the ninth century until present days. The Bulgarian icon painters had left their deep mark in the overall development of Christian Orthodox Art. Their trail can be seen in the monasteries of Mount Athos and the south-west Balkans, or in Wallachia, Moldavia and Russia, whose icon masters had followed the Bulgarian canonical pattern.
The rich historical background of the Bulgarian icon and the fact that it is a result of the efforts of a small but gifted nation makes it an inseparable element of European cultural history.

Additional information about Theophany, as found on the Internet:

The Feast of Theophany is a celebration of an historic event, the Baptism of Christ. In addition, we celebrate all the different manifestations of God (Theophanies) to men in the Person of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. We celebrate in this Feast His mysterious union with humanity in the Church -a union of faith and love,engendering men to a new spiritual life in Baptism. The event of the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan River (Mk. 1: 9-11) serves to reveal this union in a clear and special manner. The Icon of Theophany brings us visually and symbolically to the presence of the manifestation of God, the revelation of the Trinity, and the deep, spiritually rich significance of Baptism.