Pantocrator

(from the Greek pantokrator, “almighty ruler”; in Rus’, vsederzhitel’). Iconographic representation of Christ.

The term “Pantocrator” is usually applied to depictions of Christ within the central cupola or concha of a church. Surrounded by angels (on the drum or in the apse), he is bestowing a blessing with his right hand and holding the New Testament in his left hand. The representation of Christ as Pantocrator became the intellectual and compositional center of architectural and pictorial ensembles in Orthodox churches during the ninth to 11th centuries, when the domed cruciform church assumed its final form. The depiction of Christ as Pantocrator was adopted in icons and was reproduced in Italian mosaics of the 12th century.