Parsuna "Patriarch Nikon with His Clergy"

Patriarch Nikon surrounded by the clergy of his monastery: a group portrait rare in 17th-century Russian art. It is a parsuna, an early Russian portrait still dependent on icon-painting techniques. The museum's website calls it a one-of-a-kind example of a group portrait of the 1660s created on Russian soil and dates it to the early 1660s; the catalogue is more cautious, giving the second half of the 17th century with a question mark.

Nikon was Patriarch of Moscow from 1652 to 1666. His church reforms led to the schism of the Russian Church, and in 1656 he founded the Resurrection New Jerusalem Monastery near Moscow, conceived as a re-creation of the holy places of Palestine. The museum identifies the figures as Nikon with the brethren of the Resurrection Monastery.

The patriarch stands full-length on a pulpit covered with a red carpet, his right hand resting on a book. He wears a sakkos, an omophorion decorated with crosses and a mitre, holds a wooden staff in his left hand, and his cuffs show the Annunciation. To the left are eight men with their names inscribed above their heads: in front, Archimandrite Gerasim; below, the subdeacon Serafim holding Nikon's prayer beads and spectacles; above, hieromonks, a deacon and subdeacons, one of whom, the subdeacon German, supports an open book. The background shows drapery, a column and an icon of the Virgin and Child. Oil on canvas.