Since 2013, the Miniscalchi-Erizzo Museum hosts the collection of Russian Icons donated by Duska Avrese, professor of Russian Literature at the University of Padua.
The Icons of the Orthodox East are sacred objects made by monks, venerated in churches and in domestic devotion, they differ in size.
Among the subjects represented the most numerous iconographies are those dedicated to the Mother of God, accompanied by icons depicting Jesus Christ, by the most significant figures of Saints and by the solemnities of the liturgical calendar of the Christian-Orthodox religion.
Alongside these there are more complex representations such as the Resurrection and Descent into the Underworld, the dogmatic and narrative representation of the paschal mystery.
In the upper part you can read two other moments of the resurrection, set inside a cave: Christ emerges victorious from the tomb while the guards fall stunned, the women run to the empty tomb and an angel announces the Resurrection of Jesus to them.
On the left is the scene of the Crucifixion, a detail that closely links the Resurrection to the mystery of the Passion and death.
In the lower part, the victorious Christ within a golden almond tramples with his feet the gates of Hades, which held humanity prisoner in the abyss of death. Behind him stands the procession of patriarchs, prophets and all those who believed in his promise.
The procession ends with John the Baptist and the good thief, who had received the promise from Christ to enter Paradise, symbolized by the fortified city in whose custody is a cherub.
In the lower register is represented the apparition of the Risen One to the disciples on the shores of Lake Tiberias, with Peter who plunged into the waters to go against the Lord, is lifted by him with one hand.
The representation does not aim to tell a single episode but to communicate an announcement, the definitive victory over death through the Resurrection of Christ.
The room dedicated to the Russian Icons, adjacent to the Venetian eighteenth century room, was reserved to house the ancient archival collections of the family. The room was decorated in the mid-nineteenth century with stucco and leaf gilding and is characterized by the presence of a refined embellished ceiling.
In correspondence with the center of each wall there are the coats of arms of the Miniscalchi and other noble families who married with them, namely the Erizzo, the Moscardo and the Warriors.
In the corners of the ceiling are allegorically represented the instruments of four noble arts - Astronomy, Painting, Architecture and Literature - and the portraits of presumably illustrious characters in the arts depicted.
