A family icon with three female saints Daria, Paraskeva Pyatnitsa and Agaphia. Cyrillic inscriptions on the halos identify the figures. St.Paraskeva is placed in the centre holding a cross in her right hand and a palm branch – a symbol of martyrdom – in her left hand. The icon is encased in a silver oklad with gilt openwork haloes, robes of the saints are decorated with foliate design, the border of the icon is ornamented with strapwork motif with two crosses in the upper corners. Christ Pantocrator appears on top of the composition amid cloud scrolls.
Icons depicting chosen saints were widely popular in Russian icon painting. The chosen saints could be the patrons of a particular family, or the choice could be dictated by a specific church order.
