Russian Icon - Holy Apostle and Evangelist Saint John the Theologian from the Royal Doors

The icon depicts Holy Apostle and Evangelist Saint John the Theologian. The Apostle John is painted in a realistic manner and shown as a young man in a process of writing the Gospel. To his left, an eagle - a king of birds, that traditionally symbolized St. John. The round shape of the icon alludes to that it was originally a part of the Royal Doors of an iconostasis. The composition and a style of painting closely resembles an iconographic portrait of St. John the Theologian painted in 1809 by a famous Russian artist Vladimir Borovikovsky for the Royal Doors of the Kazan Cathedral in Saint Petersburg (currently in the collection of the State Russian Museum),