MIKHAIL SABININ DIT LE MOINE GOBRON (1845-1900) (attributed - Lot 150

MIKHAIL SABININ DIT LE MOINE GOBRON (1845-1900) (attributed to) Saint Ketevan. Painted icon on wood panel covered with copper and silver plates, embellished with pearl pendants (one missing). Fine red cloth (torn) on back. Engraved inscription on silver coin in Georgian, with asomtavruli characters: ႼႫ. ႵႤႧႤႥႠႬ (Saint Ketevan, წმიდა ქეთევანი). 18.5 × 11 x 2 cm. Late 19th century. Monk Mikhail Sabinin, known as Gobron, was a painter of Georgian saint icons who renewed and modernized their traditional iconography. He popularized his creations with the beautiful lithographs he published in his famous book The Paradise of Georgia (საქართველოს სამოთხე) printed in St. Petersburg in 1882. Princess Ketevan or Kéthévan became Queen of Georgia when she married King David of Kakhetia in 1581. Widowed, she was persecuted for her Christian faith by the Persian king Shah Abbas. Despite a ten-year captivity in Iran, she and her companions refused to convert to Islam. She was martyred in Isfahan in 1624. Such was her fame that part of her remains were taken to Goa in the West Indies by Catholic missionaries. Ketevan is one of the greatest martyr saints of the Georgian Church and the Orthodox world.