The Deesis

Christ enthroned, with the Theotokos on His right and St John the Forerunner on His left, both turned towards Him with their hands raised and their heads inclined. The word means supplication, and the composition is an argument about prayer: the two greatest of those born of women are shown doing the one thing the Church asks them to do, which is to ask. It is the centre of the iconostasis, the row that gives its name to the whole tier, and in a large church that row is extended with the archangels, the apostles and the hierarchs, all inclined the same way. Nobody in the composition looks at the viewer except Christ.