THE OLDEST KNOWN COPTIC ICON: CHRIST AND ABBOT MENA

interesting .

DIOSCORUS BOLES ON COPTIC NATIONALISM

The oldestknown Coptic icon was found in Bawit in Middle Egypt in 1900 by the French archaeologist Jean Clédat (1871 – 1943) who discovered the large Coptic Monastery of St. Apollo that once stood there.[1] It was gifted by the Egyptian government to France as part of the policy of dividing archaeological finds in 1901-1902, and is kept at the Louvre Museum[2] in Paris.

This most beautiful icon is painting on sycamore fig wood and measures 57 cm in height and 57 cm in width (it is 2 cm in thickness). It is the oldest Coptic icon known to us: although the Louvre dates to the 8^th century, that is after the Arab occupation, both Klaus Wessel and Pierre Du Bourguet give an earlier date: the second half of the 6^th century[3] and 6^th-7^th centuries,[4] respectively. It depicts Christ and Abbot…

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