Large antique original Russian icon, made of bronze, from the second half of the 19th century - SIZE: 32.8 x 23.5 cm - Central Russia - in excellent condition, considering its age, with signs of oxidation due to the copper part inside the cast bronze (see photos). In the last photo there is an example of this icon published in German. Here below some information (very interesting, in my opinion) about this icon.Antique, original and authentic Patriarchal Cross. Bronze Russian icon. The item depicts the Crucifixion of Jesus in the middle and the image of the God of Sabaoth above it (Sabaoth is the transliteration of the Hebrew word Sĕbā’ōt, plural form of ṣābā “army”), in the biblical phrases Yahweh Sĕbā’ōt “God of the armies”, and Yahweh Elōhē Sĕbā’ōt “Lord of the armies”. This term passed from the Bible to the liturgy (Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth, during the Mass). The biblical phrase celebrates God as head of the Israel armies or Lord of the hosts of heaven. However, Christians prefer to read it as “God of the universe”, that is, of all creation. At the sides of the horizontal arm there are Greek monograms IC XC, referred to Jesus Christ, and liturgical Slavic inscriptions with invocations to the Holy life-giving Cross. At the bottom of the cross there is the skull of Adam, symbol of the Cross redemption from the original sin. In the lower part there are the whole figures of Saint John and the centurion Longinus on the right, and the Virgin and another crying woman on the left.All around there are several squares with particularly devotional Saints (among whom Saint Nicholas), as per the rarest and most precious canonical iconography of the “Old Believers”. There are also the feasts of the liturgical year with other representations of Mary (at the top, God’s Mother with the four Evangelists, and below Our Lady of the Sign). The work is completed by a series of singing cherubs who encircle all the bronze icon.The work has a slight wear: it is a common element among the “Old Believers”, who used to pray holding the sacred figures in relief between their hands and touching them repeatedly.