A COLLECTION OF SEVEN PRINTS: EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH & TURKISH COSTUME
Greece and Western territories, 18th - 20th century

Comprising an icon of St. John the Baptist, engraving, with Saint Nyphon and Dionyssos, signed by the monks Aghapios and Daniel, labelled ‘From a copper engraving in the possession of the Monastery of Dionysiou, Mount Athos, printed by hand, by Professor Mylonios, 1963’; Messelreuter (Johann), Ein Buffon..., hand-coloured engraving from ‘Neu-eröffneter Masquen-Saal, oder: Der verkleideten heydnischen Götter, Göttinnen und Vergötterter' [Newly Opened Hall of Masks, or, Costumed Pagan Gods, Goddesses and Heroes], Johann Lobern, Brandenburg, 1723; v.s., with others similar, studies of costumes and fashion of the time, all framed & glazed, the largest 89.4cm x 67.5cm including the frame.

Greek Orthodox paper icons were addressed to a wider, less educated public than guides in book form and were given by travelling monks to pious believers, encouraging them to support their monastery or make a pilgrimage to it; alternatively, they were kept as mementoes of a visit. This practice remained in place even during the Ottoman Empire, attesting to the strength and deep roots of the Greek Orthodox faith.