Dendrochronological dating of the donated icon of1595-1596 with dedicatory inscriptions depicting the Great Martyr Demetrius of the Saloniki and his life

When medieval icons are studied by applying a dendrochronologicalmethod, it is important to understand to what extent the dendrochronological dates of theicon boards reflect accurately the historical date of the icon painting. This issue can beaddressed correctly only by dating a series of icons containing the dates when they were painted using a dendrochronological method. These are icons with dedicatory inscriptionscontaining the dates left by icon-painters in their autographs. One of such icons, whichdepicts the Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessaloniki and his life, comes from the RussianNorth; as is indicated in the dedicatory inscription, it was painted in 1595-1596.The dendrochronological date obtained for this icon is 1587. The dendrochronologicaldate of the last preserved tree-ring of the icon board turned out to be nine years older thanthe date of the icon. In case of the icon in question, this chronological interval is the sumof two intervals, namely, the first interval corresponding to the number of the externaltree-rings lost, and the second period, which is the period from the timber harvesting tothe icon painting.