Our Lady of Vladimir. The Savior Not Made by Hands. The Annunciation. Selected saints. A folding icon
Iconography: Savior Not Made by Hands, Vladimir icon of the Mother of God, Annunciation of the Most Holy Virgin, Selected saints
Date: XVI century. A 16th century icon of the Mother of God with tint coating. The folding icon is made in the 17th century.
Iconographic school/art center: Murom?
Origin: From the Trinity Convent in Murom.
Material: Wood, tempera
Dimensions: height 40,5 cm, width 25 cm
The icon portraying Our Lady of Vladimir is placed inside a folding two-leaf triptych with a keeled finial. The upper part of the leaves depicts the Annunciation scene. The remaining images on the folding icon represent a sort of Deesis tier. The finial depicts an image of the Savior Not Made by Hands with the attending Mother of God and John the Baptist. On the leaves are the images of the Murom saints – princes Constantine, Michael and Feodor, Peter and Fevronia. One may suggest from these images that the folding icon was created in Murom or other town, but at the commission from a citizen of Murom. Notably, the Murom princes, in breach of the traditional hierarchy of the Deesis tier are portrayed right after the Apostles Peter and Paul and before the ecumenical and Russian saints. The left leaf represents three Russian saints – Basil the Great, George the Theologian and John the Chrysostom. The symmetrical images of Sts. Peter, Alexis and Jonah represent the traditional, for the late Middle Ages, likening of the three Muscovite Metropolitans to the three ecumenical saints.
General view