Gabriel the Archangel
This amazing image has been taken from the original, stored in the Saint Catherine’s Abbey on Mount Sinai. Its style is linked to the Byzantine tradition of XIII Century. Gabriel the Archangel is painted as a young androgynous figure, winged, with a diadem fixed on a ribbon.
The two ties of the ribbon at the sides of his head are a symbol of the extension of listening. The angel is holding the long stick of ostiaries in his hand.
Insights
For the tunic, I used a beautiful pigment: the dioptasio. It comes from a greenish mineral stone. It was given this name in the early XIX Century by the French abbot René Just Hauy. It comes from the Greek “through” and “I see”.
It is used to paint mantles, clothes and as a glaze for other pigments. In this icon there is a lot of assist. The assists are thin rays of light that branch off from clothes, which, due to their ethereal lightness, evoke a living, burning and vivid light.