The Miracle of Saint Michael at Chonae

The scene shows the miraculous intervention of the Archangel Michael in the rescue of his hagiasma and the church at Chonae, in Asia Minor, from the river that turned against them by pagans. The saint, with his legs apart and the right hand raised, diverts the river using his pole, while monk Archippos is praying reverently. The Archangel is shown against a background of mountains, steeply stepped in the Byzantine manner, and a domed temple with a small pediment over the entrance. The monk Archippos is depicted as an old man with a pointed beard, bending in prayer before the Archangel who looks upon him favourably. The subject is iconographically known since the 10th century (Menologion of Basil II, 980), while a very close parallel is found in a Palaeologan icon in the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The scene in the present icon has a classical tranquility and the chiaroscuro is rendered in a very linear manner. All these elements lead to the dating of the icon around 1500 and its attribution to the Cretan cycle.