Allegorical Painting "The Spiritual Labyrinth"

This painting by an unknown Russian artist of the second half of the 18th century is built as a visual moral lesson on the path of the human soul. The upper part of the canvas is taken up by the Heavenly City of Jerusalem, the lower by a labyrinth of black and white concentric circles. The outer circles are open: two exits lead up to the Heavenly Jerusalem, and 11 lead down into the fire of Gehenna.

Above the city, Christ, the Virgin and John the Baptist are enthroned in the clouds, and below them is the Holy Spirit as a dove radiating beams of light. At the centre of the labyrinth are a baby in a cradle with a guardian angel bending over it, Death with a scythe, a skull and bones ("Adam's head"), and a woman on a bed whose soul an angel is taking away. Nearby is the "ladder of earthly life" in the form of a brick pedestal: a man and a woman climb it as children and descend it as old people, with inscriptions marking their ages from one to 90 years. In the lower corners, demons push sinners into Gehenna.

The image is accompanied by inscriptions: in the upper part of the labyrinth, lines from the Psalms and verses; below, by the figures of the sinners, lists of sins. Oil on canvas.