Inscription

Inscribed throughout in traditional Church Russian (Church Slavonic) with names of prophets, saints, etc. Engraved on the outside of the brass frame is a cross with the symbols of the Passion, inscribed (top to bottom): The King of Glory; Jesus Christ; Victor; Lance (with which Christ was speared); Stick (tipped with acid to aggravate the wound); the initials R, B, M, L, G, G, standing for various personages represented in the paintings; and at the lower center, the Russian letters GA ("Golova Adama": Head of Adam). A scrap of paper was found behind the center panel, but it is damaged and very difficult to read. Professor A. Dean McKenzie of the University of Oregon, who translated the numerous inscriptions and identified the iconography of the panels, likewise examined the writing on the paper scrap and in a letter of January 29, 1979, said that it refers to two brothers: Ivan Dmitrievich, one of the brothers, apparently presented this icon as a gift to his younger brother.