A CARVED WALNUT WOOD MINIATURE CHRISTIAN ENKOLPION PLAQUE
Mount Athos, North-Eastern Greece, Ottoman Western Provinces, 18th century

Of rectangular shape, possibly once part of an enkolpion (a necklace or pendant decorated with Christian imagery and inscriptions or containing a sacred relic), minutely carved at the top and bottom with two rows of eight Christian Saints including St. George, St. Dimitri, and St. Theodore, mostly celebrated and worshipped in the Orthodox Christian church, the central medallion with a scene from the Genesis showing Sarah and Abraham visited by three winged Saints (Genesis 18: 1-15), surrounded by interlocking vines and bunches of grape, the negative spaces filled with bust profiles of the Twelve Apostles, mounted, glazed and framed, the plaque 6cm x 4.5cm, 22cm x 20cm x 4.5cm including the frame.