Archangel Gabriel
THE ICON SHOWN
- AUTHOR
- Anastasia Kaplii
- YEAR
- 2026
- MATERIALS
- Egg tempera, natural mineral pigments, gold
- TECHNIQUE
- Translucent layering with fine painterly strokes
- TRADITION
- Early Russian icon painting, inspired by the legacy of Andrei Rublev
- ORIGIN OF THE IMAGE
- Early Christian and Byzantine tradition. The author of the original image is unknown.
ABOUT THE IMAGE
“The Strength of God”
Archangel Gabriel is the heavenly messenger who brought the Virgin Mary the Good News of the birth of Jesus Christ. His name is traditionally translated as “the Strength of God”. The image of Gabriel is bound up with the Annunciation, with hope and with the acceptance of God’s will. People pray to him for spiritual guidance, for the well-being of the family, for help in important undertakings and for the blessing of motherhood.
Images of Archangel Gabriel have been known since the early centuries of Christian art. In Byzantium his iconography developed widely and became especially closely bound to depictions of the Annunciation. There is no single original image and no known author of this iconography.
LETTER
The face is painted last. By that point nothing can be changed — neither the colour of the robes, nor the turn of the head, nor the gold behind the shoulders.
Gold here is neither ornament nor background. It is a refusal of space: the figure stands in no room, in no landscape.
An icon is not painted for a museum. It is placed at home, at eye level — and looked at for years.