St. Michael the Archangel and St. Paul the Apostle is a fragment of a panel painting, detail from the right side of the sequence Deésis. Tempera on wood, the panel dimensions: 107.3 x 159.2 x 2.5 cm. Pictured archangel and apostle are the part of Deésis scene consisting of five painted panels of different sizes and originating from the wooden St. Demeters Church in Rovne (the Svidnik district) not existing anymore. Since 1906, it is placed in the Saris Museum at Bardejov.
Deésis originated in the first half of the 16th century and it is the oldest monument of this iconographic type in Slovakia. It pictures Christ sitting on the throne, between Mother of God and St. John Baptist, who are turning to him with appealing gestures. The central "address" is completed at the sides by archangels, apostles, saint fathers, and martyrs.
A remarkable beauty of this monument was discovered by Polish restorer Wojciech Kurpik in 1968. The panels of Deésis from Rovne were exhibited in Munich (1969-1978), at the World Exhibition in Osaka (1970), in Brussels (1973), in Prague (1984, 1988), in Bratislava and Kosice. The entire Deésis from Rovne is exhibited at the first specialised exposition of icons in Slovakia in the Saris Museum at Bardejov at present.

František Gutek, Director of the Saris Museum