With 18 Scenes from her Life and the Life
of her parents Joachim and Anna

Russian

Vologda, with Northern (Novgorod) influence

circa 1550

Tempera and gold on gesso and wood

Panel: 122 x 94.5 cm

This sixteenth-century Russian icon depicting the Virgin Mary and Christ Child is based on a prototype believed, in popular tradition, to have been painted during the Virgin's lifetime by the evangelist St. Luke, and enshrined in the Hodegos monastery in Constantinople [see footnote 1]. The image was venerated in Byzantium and later in Russia as one of the most powerful of the miracle-working icons of the Mother of God. In Russian culture, the veneration of the Virgin was a constant theme: cathedrals were dedicated to her, hymns extolled her, and icons were painted in her honour. With the fall of Byzantium and the rise of the Muscovite state, the possession and veneration of icons linked with the Byzantine Empire carried a new significance, as now the rulers of Muscovy assumed the mantle of leadership in the Orthodox world and carried forward the sacred traditions of Byzantium. [see footnote 2 ]

The full article, by Scott Ruby, can be read in the published catalogue 'MASTERPIECES OF EARLY CHRISTIAN ART AND ICONS'.