Our Lady of Lyubyatovo
Iconography: Lyubyatovskaya icon of the Mother of God
Date: XV century. The middle of the 15th c.
Iconographic school/art center: Pskov icon-painting school
Origin: From the Church of St. Nicholas upon Lyubyatovo near Pskov.
Material: Wood, tempera
Dimensions: height 109 cm, width 77 cm
The icon of Our Lady of Lyubyatovo belongs to the iconographic type known as “Tenderness”.
The reverse of the icon was covered with a silver engraved board carrying two inscriptions. One of them read that Tsar Ivan the Terrible “while going to execute the citizens of Pskov” in 1570, spent a night at the Lyubyatovo monastery. But, after seeing the miraculous icon of the Mother of God’s Tenderness, he changed his mind and canceled his order to kill people («здесь во время утреннего пения стоя в церкви, взирая на чудотворную икону Умиления Божьей Матери, умилившись сердцем, сказал своим воинам: иступите мечи о камень и да перестанут убийства».) Other inscription read that prince Konstantin Osipovich Shcherbatov ordered to make the icon case in commemoration of the miracles performed by the icon: «прежде бывших летех во время войны в приход воинских немец в сей монастырь и те иноверцы учинили на сей чудотворной иконе рублючи на заде две язвы и те поругатели зле исчезоша, а православным христианом просящим милости быша великие исцеление даже и до сего дня».
Inv. № .12725. © The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
Bibliography:
Иконопись из собрания Третьяковской галереи. М., 2008. С. 66
General view