STEATITE ICON WITH SAINT JOHN THE THEOLOGIAN

A steatite icon with the representation of Saint John the Evangelist, nowadays kept at the Archaeological Museum in Skopje (inv. no. 84), was discovered at the site of Manastir near the modern village of Demir Kapija in 1952. The icon was found in the debris of a three-aisled church on the top of a hill in the periphery of Prosakos, the well-known stronghold which was under Byzantine rule from the aftermath of the battle of Pelagonia (1259) until its cession to the Serbian State of Stephen Dusan (1328 or slightly earlier). The context, to which the icon belonged, can be dated to the 12th or 13th c. according to monetary evidence. The iconographic and stylistic analysis of the steatite icon shows that there are conclusive characteristics of the saint's depiction and carving technique which cannot pre-date the 13th c. Saint John is similarly carved on a small marble capital from the Fethiye Camii, Istanbul, which has been dated to the end of the t13th c. The most striking analogies with the Prosakos steatite can be observed on the frame of the silver-gilt revetment of the icon of Christ Psychosostis in Ohrid, where the evangelist is shown with a similar pose and in an analogous volume. The icon of Christ has been recently attributed to a workshop from Thessalonike and dated to the early 14th c. The same place of origin and date are also suggested for the Prosakos steatite