Portable folding box with a small medallion icon of the Theotokos Hodegetria, eight images of the Theotokos with the festivals

The triptych belongs to the folding boxes type with a keel-shaped finial. In accordance with tradition, the upper parts of the leaves represent the Annunciation scene; under them are the festival scenes such as the Nativity of the Mother of God, the Entry into the Temple, the Nativity of Christ, the Meeting of Our Lord, the Epiphany, the Resurrection of Lazar, the Entry into Jerusalem, the Transfiguration (left), the Crucifixion, the Descent from the Cross, the Resurrection – the Descent to Hell, the Myrrh-Bearing Women at the Holy Sepulcher, the Confession of Saint Thomas, the Ascension, the Holy Trinity, the Dormition of the Mother of God (right). The finial of the upper part shows the rare composition of Agnus Dei symbolically depicting the redemptive sacrifice of Christ for the sins of the whole world. It also shows the Infant Christ lying on the discos and blessed with rhipidia that the attending angels are holding in hands. Inside the box is an icon with a built-in 16th century bony medallion icon depicting the Mother of God Hodegetria, set in a filigree frame. Next to it are the angels, surrounded by eight icons of the Mother of God in different iconographic variants. The central icon imitates the engraving of eight images of the Theotokos – one of the leaves created by the Moscow engraver Gregory Tepchegorsky who worked in 1702-1718 and was included in different collections of the first third of the 18th century. Not only did Tepchegorsky use the images of famous Russian icons, but he also authored a number of icons, such as the Tervansky icon, which in Russia was later associated with the Terebinsky pustyn (hermitage) in the Tverskoi region. 

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