The Deesis Tier of the Iconostasis in the Cathedral of the Nativity in the

Ferapontov Monastery

Dionysius 1502

Images from icon-art

The iconostasis is the elaborately painted wall of icons that separates the Holy Apse from the main nave of an Orthodox church. It has a varying number of tiers depicting on the lowest tier the local icons right and left of the Holy Door, the Deesis, shown here, above the door, a tier with the icons of the Feast Days above that, and a tier of prophets and church fathers at the top.

The iconostasis of the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin at the Ferapontov Monastery is one of the few surviving works of Dionysius. The original panels, now carefully restored, are kept in various museums in St. Petersburg and Moscow, they have been replaced by copies in Ferapontov. A detailed discussion of Russian icons by V. N. Lazarev (2000) in Russian is found here, with a special chapter on Ferapontov.