Abstract: Many icons from the collection of the Museum are devoted to the theme of the Eucharist - the iconographic types of "The Last Supper" and "Jesus Christ "The Vine". This article presents an iconographic type less well-known in our area - "Jesus Christ "The Vine", which is reflected on the three icons from the museum. Eucharist is one of the great sacraments in which Jesus Christ, presaging the sacrifice of the Cross, gives his disciples bread and wine in the chalice referring to the bread as "my body" and the wine as "my blood". Icons from the Museum's collection represent the general scheme of this type of icons: the Savior is depicted sitting on the altar table, behind Him - the Cross, vines with grapes grows from His rib and He presses the grapes with both hands into the chalice, supported by an angel. On the left side another angel holds a large rolled scroll. On the two icons, in the upper part of the composition, two angels hold scrolls with inscriptions, on one of the icons in the Romanian language, on the other in the Old Slavonic: "one who eats My Body", "one who drinks My Blood". The theme of the Eucharist was treated in images from ancient times; it was conveyed through symbolic images of the basket of bread, fish, vine, its fruit, birds pecking grapes or the Christian meal scenes. Later, there were images in which the Savior was depicted in the vine, among the twelve apostles. Since the 16th century there are known the icons, on which at the base of the cross there is depicted the Tomb of Christ, and near the Tomb the resurrected Jesus Christ covered with a white cloth stands on the plate shifted to one side. In the hands of the Savior there is a vine growing out of the grave, and he presses the wine in the chalice, which holds the kneeling angel. These images develop into complex compositions, very common in the 17th-18th centuries in Poland, the southern regions of Russia, in Romania, Georgia, and Serbia. Such the images designed for the location in the altar are found on the icons on glass and on wooden icons. Icons from the museum's collection, which are dated from the end of the 19th century to 1920s-1930s, perhaps were created by the order of parish or the laity. They were maintained, in all probability, in the altars of churches or in the naos as icons for prayer. This assumption is confirmed by their impressive size.
List of Figures: Fig. 1. Jesus Christ "The Vine", the first half of the 15th century, Angelos Akotantos, Greece. Fig. 2. Jesus Christ "The Vine", the first half of the 15th century, Angelos Akotantos, Greece. Fig. 3. Jesus Christ "The Vine", 16th century, Ioan and Sofronie Zugravul, Sucevița Monastery. Fig. 4. The Eucharist, 17th-19th centuries, Romania, private collection, Holland. Fig. 5 Jesus Christ "The Vine", around 1700, Hurezi Monastery. Fig. 6. Jesus Christ "The Vine", the beginning of the 18th century, Lviv. Fig. 7. Jesus Christ "The Vine", about 1740, Volyn. Fig. 8. Jesus Christ "The Vine", 17th century. The Sanok Museum, Poland. Fig. 9. Miniature from the Collection of Akathist Hymns of 1674, printing of Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. Fig. 10. Jesus Christ "The Vine", the beginning of the 18th century. The Church of the Ascension in the village of Olgomel, Brest. Fig. 11. Jesus Christ "The Vine", 19th century, Georgia. Fig. 12. Jesus Christ "The Vine", 18th century, A. Ponehalsky, the church in Călinești-Căeni, Maramureș. Fig. 13. Miniature, Missal of the Metropolitan Stephen of Wallachia (1648-1688). Fig. 14. Jesus Christ "The Vine", 1927, Ioasaf Berghie, Bessarabia (from the NMHM collection). Fig. 15. Jesus Christ "The Vine", 1928, Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in the village of Petrovka, Sărata, Odessa. Fig. 16. Jesus Christ "The Vine", 1920s-1930s, Irinei Protchenko, Bessarabia from the NMHM collection). Fig. 17. Jesus Christ "The Vine", 1920s-1930s, Bessarabia (from the NMHM collection).
The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
