Age of Russian(?) Paintings

I wasn't arguing that "holding his head" (or the style of cross) is atypical for JB, rather ... everything else.

Honestly, if it weren't for the cross, I'd still be looking at other beheaded saints.

 

If you look at a lot of other saints, you'll see that a great many of them are holding these reedy crosses. Aren't you supposed to be working?

 

I may rescind my JB vote, then - and go back to my initial twitch which was "painted in the style of an icon."

The available emojis are sorely lacking in the Bronx Cheer department, so imagine more spittle:

 

All good comments....Maybe the best hope for ID is to continue trying to translate. May not be St. John, but the first is certainly intended to be an Orthodox icon, IMHO - or "painted in the style of."

 

Based on what's written on it, think this is the beginning of the correct path to an ID:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Paraskevi

Word to left of figure is saint, cognate to Hagia, as in Hagia Sophia. I looked at a bunch of Cyrillic alphabets. Ukranian seemed to come closest, but there are those little diacritical marks that don't seem to belong to anyone.

A number of churches & villages with the name. This is the saint:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraskevi_of_Rome

She went through a lot before the end:

According to a traditional story, the emperor attempted to force the saint to denounce her faith, and even offered to marry her. Paraskevi refused, and was tortured by having a steel helmet lined with nails placed on her head. Paraskevi endured this torture and her endurance caused many to convert to Christianity. Paraskevi was imprisoned and tortured. She was also immersed into a large kettle of oil and tar, but she emerged unscathed. When she was accused of using magic, Paraskevi responded by throwing the liquid into the emperor's face. He was blinded, and asked for her help. Antoninus Pius regained his sight and set Paraskevi free.[5]

However, after the death of Antoninus Pius, the laws changed once again under Marcus Aurelius, and Paraskevi was imprisoned. She was captured in a city governed by a man named Asclepius, who threw her into a pit with a large snake. The saint made a sign of the cross and the snake was cloven in half.[7] She continued to travel from city to city preaching the Faith.

Eventually, Paraskevi was arrested by an official named Taracius (Tarasios), who had her beheaded

 

Apparently by convention she carries her eyes, like St. Lucy, not her head:

 

I started to come back and say, "no they are not," but then I looked at the one here and realized it isn't even the type of cross I'm referring to.

I totally misread where the cross ends. Thought it was:

 

Thanks for the history lesson, although I might have nightmares tonight.

 

Apparently, there's more than one saint with this name.

I didn't read carefully enough to know which one this is.

But here's the URL: https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2009/07/saint-paraskeve-virgin-martyr-according.html

 

I found another picture.

 

Same one, some different details/embellishments.

Looks to me that by convention cephalophores may be shown carrying their severed head, but the head on a platter is specific to John the Baptist. The one above posted by NE does not have the head on a plate; it just looks that way because of the nimbus around the head in her hand, just like the one around the one that's attached.

OP's piece has scrambled the traditions for this saint by putting the head on a serving dish instead of the eyes/not putting the head in her hand. The lettering is sloppy with variable spacing so some letters bump into others. It is an icon in style. Think it would not receive the imprimatur of any established church.

Original question was old or new(ish). New.

 

I wonder if the gold border and whatnot is just the artist's best means for keeping the severed head from disappearing into the background. Or being a bloody stump.

I mean, it's a queer shape for a serving dish.

 

You are crediting the painter with more skill & understanding than I would.

 

I was wondering whether the first one was like this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rough_breathing

indicating an H sound before the next letter. E.g., in ancient Greek, the masculine singular form of 'the' is written 'o & pronounced ho; without the mark it would just sound like 'owe'.