,
encaustic on panel (
Saint Catherine's Monastery). The two different facial expressions on either side of Christ's face depict Christ as the bearer of mercy and grace (left half) and Christ as the dreaded judge of unrepentant sinners (right side).The icon of Christ Pantokrator is one of the most common religious images of Orthodox Christianity. Generally speaking, in
Byzantine art church art and architecture, an
iconic mosaic or fresco of Christ Pantokrator occupies the space in the central dome of the church, in the half-dome of the
apse, or on the
nave vault. Some scholars (Latourette 1975: 572) consider the Pantocrator a Christian adaptation of images of Zeus, such as the great
statue of Zeus enthroned at Olympia. The development of the earliest stages of the icon from Roman Imperial imagery is easier to trace. The image of Christ Pantocrator was one of the first
images of Christ developed in the
Early Christian Church and remains a central icon of the
Eastern Orthodox Church. In the half-length image, Christ holds the
New Testament in his left hand and makes the gesture of teaching or of
blessing with his right. The typical Western
Christ in Majesty is a full-length icon. In the early
Middle Ages, it usually presented Christ in a
mandorla or other geometric frame, surrounded by the
Four Evangelists or their symbols.
The oldest known surviving example of the icon of Christ Pantocrator was painted in
encaustic on panel in the sixth or seventh century, and survived the period of destruction of images during the
Iconoclastic disputes that twice racked the Eastern church, 726 to 787 and 814 to 842. It was preserved in
Saint Catherine's Monastery, in the remote desert of the
Sinai. The
gessoed panel, finely painted using a wax medium on a wooden panel, had been coarsely overpainted around the face and hands at some time around the thirteenth century. When the overpainting was cleaned in 1962, the ancient image was revealed to be a very high-quality icon, probably produced in
Constantinople. The icon, traditionally half-length when in a
semi-dome, which became adopted for panel icons also, depicts Christ fully frontal with a somewhat melancholy and stern aspect, with the right hand raised in blessing or, in the early encaustic panel at Saint Catherine's Monastery, the conventional rhetorical gesture that represents teaching. The left hand holds a closed book with a richly decorated cover featuring the
Cross, representing the
Gospels. An icon where Christ has an open book is called "Christ the Teacher", a variant of the Pantocrator. Christ is bearded, his brown hair centrally parted, and his head is surrounded by a
halo. The icon usually has a
gold ground comparable to the gilded grounds of
Byzantine mosaics. Often, the
name of Christ is written on each side of the halo, as
IC and XC. Christ's fingers are depicted in a pose that represents the letters IC, X and C, thereby making the
Christogram ICXC (for "Jesus Christ"). The IC is composed of the Greek characters
iota (Ι) and
lunate sigma (C; instead of Σ, ς)—the first and last letters of 'Jesus' in Greek (); in XC the letters are
chi (Χ) and again the lunate sigma—the first and last letters of 'Christ' in Greek (). In many cases, Christ has a
cruciform halo inscribed with the letters Ο Ω Ν, i.e.
"The Existing One". File:The_Greek_Pantokrator_on_the_Hungarian_Holy_Crown.jpg|The Pantokrator on the Hungarian
Holy Crown, File:Pantocràtor de Taüll.jpg|Pantocràtor de Taüll,
Sant Climent de Taüll Church,
Catalonia. (Now at MNAC-,
Barcelona) File:Christ Pantocrator, Church of the Holy Sepulchre.png|Christ Pantocrator mosaic from the dome of the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre in
Jerusalem File:Sankt Petersburg Auferstehungskirche innen 2005 d.jpg|Christ Pantocrator inside the dome of
Church of the Saviour on the Blood (Храм Спаса на Крови),
St. Petersburg File:Christ Pantocrator - Capela Palatina - Palermo - Italy 2015.JPG|Mosaic of
Palatine Chapel in
Palermo File:Mosaico di cristo in trono tra gli apostoli e le ss. prudenziana e prassede, 410 dc ca. 01.jpg|Christ Pantocrator in the church of
Santa Pudenziana in Rome,
Roman mosaic, File:Jesus in Sacred Heart Church (Berlin).jpg|Christ Pantocrator inside the
Sacred Heart Church (Berlin), File:Russian Jewelled Icon of Christ Pantocrator.jpg|A miniature Russian icon of Christ Pantocrator, richly decorated with pearls and
enamel, –1908 File:KWGK Mosaik 04.jpg|Damaged mosaic of Christ Pantocrator inside the
Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Berlin File:Пантократор (Св. Богородица,Битола).jpg|Roof
fresco of Christ Pantocrator, Nativity of the Theotokos Church,
Bitola, North Macedonia File:Christ Pantocrator (Church of St. Alexander Nevsky, Belgrade).jpg|Christ Pantocrator in the Orthodox
Church of St. Alexander Nevsky,
Belgrade, Serbia File:Pantokrator_Adalbert-Gresgnigt_Mosteiro-Sao-Bento-Sao-Paulo_1922.jpg|Christ Pantocrator painted by Adelbert Gresnigt, Beuron Art School
Mosteiro de São Bento (São Paulo),
Brazil ==Statuary==