Icon with four church feasts. About 1310-20 Probably Thessalonica, Greece Egg tempera, gilding, wood. Thessalonica, Greece; The most important artistic centre in the Byzantine Empire after Constantinople. It depicts four episodes from the life of Christ that were celebrated as important religious feasts. In the Annunciation (top left), the Virgin has been disturbed while spinning thread by the sudden arrival of the archangel Gabriel. In the Nativity (top right), the Virgin sleeps next to the manger containing the Christ child. Christ is baptised (bottom left) in the river Jordan by John the Baptist. In the Transfiguration (bottom right), the prophets Moses and Elijah appear to Christ, whose face and clothes glow supernaturally.