Tikhomirova Ksenia — St. Petersburg Repin Academy of Fine Arts, assistant-lecturer of the painting restoration sub-department; the State Hermitage Museum, fine-art restorer.
E-mail: kseniyatikhomirova@gmail.com

The article concerns the issue of attribution. In the restoring and researching process over the “Theotokos” icon of the Deesis tier taken out by a field visiting ethnographic expedition in 1962 to the Historical and Art Museum of Pskov (these days the State Affiliated Historical and Architectural and Art Reserve Museum of Pskov) from the Trinity cathedral of the city of Ostrov (Pskov county) it was found out that the icon had not applied to the church from which it entered the museum, there were not ascertained the related icons of the Deesis tier entered from other churches of the city of Ostrov. Historical study of the devotional art replacement in XX century, archive reference, survey of the old Russian painting artifacts of the XVI century of Pskov facilitated to select relative icons for further expertise. The old-Russian painting artifacts presumably originated from the same with the icon in question iconosatasis were examined, set of technique and technological studies was conducted and thereafter all the examined icons being in possession of different museums – The State Affiliated Historical and Architectural and Art Reserve Museum of Pskov (Russia) and The Regional History and Art Museum of Daugavpils (Latvia) were compared. Visual similarity, correspondence of paint layers stratigraphy, as well as archive files allowed to refer the being studied “Theotokos” icon and also the Great martyr Dimitrious, Reverend Nilus, Michael and Gabriel the Archangels icons of unknown earlier origination from the collection of The State Affiliated Historical and Architectural and Art Reserve Museum of Pskov and the John the Baptist, Nicolaos the Wonderworker icons from the collection of the Regional History and Art Museum of Daugavpils to the same Deesis tier of the XVI century and conclude that all mentioned above icons originate from the Temple of Michael the Archangel of the city of Pskov.

Attribution, Deesis tier of the XVI century, occupation of Pskov during the Second World War, old-Russian painting artifacts, replaced art, stratigraphy, stylistic analysis, technique and technological studies of painting, temple of Michael the Archangel of the city of Pskov, the XVI century icon of Pskov.