Lot number 1788 - Auction 156
BEDEUTENDE MONUMENTALE, SIGNIERTE IKONE MIT DER ALTTESTAMENTLICHEN DREIFALTIGKEIT AUS EINER KIRCHEN-IKONOSTASE

AN IMPORTANT MONUMENTAL SIGNED ICON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT TRINITY FROM A CHURCH ICONOSTASIS Russian, Kaluga, Fyodor Semyonov Faleev, early 18th century Tempera on wood panel. The details made of gold. Executed in a contrasting red and green palette with rich accents in gold. The faces are sensitively modeled with nuanced brown and green tones, creating a strong sense of plasticity. Signed in Cyrillic at lower left. On the reverse, label 'KASTEEL DE WIJENBURGH.' Losses to the gilding of the haloes; minor vertical cracking with restoration. Fyodor Semyonov Faleev, active in Kaluga, is documented through surviving works dated between 1720 and 1731. He belongs to a generation of early modern Russian artists still deeply rooted in the established pictorial traditions of the Moscow court workshops. In the first half of the 18th century, Faleev followed the stylistic and iconographic principles of painting associated with the Armoury Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin. This school is characterized by a synthesis of iconographic strictness, refined draftsmanship, and increasingly decorative elements, some already influenced by the Baroque. Faleev's work exemplifies the transitional phase in Russian painting between late medieval icon tradition and the growing impact of Western European influences under Peter the Great. Literature: H. and R. Roozemond, Icons from the Collections of the Eikon Galleries, Amsterdam, 1981, pp. 46-47; Lexicon of Russian Icon Painters of the 11th-17th Centuries, 2003, p. 708. Provenance: German private collection; previously Eikon Gallery, Amsterdam, inv. no. 5903.