# The Saints and Feasts of the Church Calendar [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [UNKNOWN ICON PAINTER, Russian]() - Date: 1501-1550 - Technique: Egg tempera on wood, 158 x 91 cm ## Commentary Every day of the Church year is dedicated to the memory of one or more saints or to a feast which commemorates an important event in the life of Christ or His mother. While it is fairly common to find depictions of all the saints and feasts commemorated in a particular month, it is rare to see the whole Church year painted on one or two panels. The picture shows an old Russian example of a complete calendar in the form of a diptych. The Orthodox liturgical year comprises two cycles of festivals: one of movable feasts based on the lunar calendar, and another, whose dates are fixed, based on the solar year. The saints and feasts of the latter are depicted in ten rows on each panel, in precise chronological order. A red dot \(representing the moon\) marks the start of each new month. ## Related artworks - [Exaltation of the Cross]() - [Icon of St Theodore Stratilates and St Theodore Tyron]() - [Icon of the Transfiguration]() - [Luke Paints the Icon of the Mother of God Hodegetria]() - [Mandylion]() - [Resurrection of Christ and the Harrowing of Hell]() - [St Luke the Apostle and Evangelist]() - [St Nicholas the Wonder-Worker]() - [St Nicholas with Scenes from his Life]() - [St Nicholas with Scenes from His Life]() - [Synaxis of All Saints]() - [The Apostle Peter]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()