TIRANA, Sept 24 /ATA/ – Descent into Hell icon by icon painter Kostandin once decorated the iconostasis of the church “The Virgin Life-Giving Source” and is part of the from the Dodekaorton cycle.
The icon, preserved in the collection of the Medieval Art Museum in Korça, depicts Christ’s triumphal descent into hell. Christ, the central figure in the composition, is depicted in pronounced movement, his red cloak billowing behind.
The Saviour raises Adam and Eve simultaneously, pulling them from their ancient sarcophagi. He holds a sceptre in his left hand. From the cross of victory at its top billows a red banner. Behind Christ’s glory, four angels wearing white chitons and gold-red cloaks hold torches and spears.
While John the Baptist, who makes supplication at his side and around the Saviour are Eve, in supplication, prophets, kings and groups of the just.
Beneath the broken gates of Hell, is Satan, fire emerging from his horned head, and his arms bound with chains to the two sarcophagi.
The upper part of the icon features rocks in a very rugged relief that constitutes the environment where the scene takes place. In this icon the painter Konstandin from Korça writes only the year in which he painted the icon 1770.
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