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The icon depicts Our Lady of Vladimir with 64 scenes from her life and an image of Our Lady of Vladimir on the mullion. -
Waist-length depiction of Our Lady, keeping the Divine Child close to her. -
The icon represents the half-length figure of the Mother of God with the Child, flanked by the Archangel Gabriel, Princess Olga and two saints. -
The icon represents the half-length figure of the Holy Virgin with the Child. -
The half-length figure of the Virgin with the Child. -
The iconographic version is derived from the icon known as Our Lady of Vladimir – a Byzantine icon of the first third of the 12th century (currently kept in Moscow’s State Tretyakov Gallery), attributed in later legends to the Evangelist Luke. The Murom icon is derived from a composition that had appeared after the repainting of Our Lady of Vladimir in 1514: the left hand is raised high above the right, on the neck, under omophorion, peers out the left hand of the Infant Christ. The Mother of God’s head is covered with a diadem, decorated with pearls and precious stones. This imitation of the precious setting of the Mother of God’s icon obviously emphasized the fact that the Murom icon is the exact iconographic variant of the original miraculous icon. The bottom border carried an inscription “Лета 7122 году марта 9 день сия икона Владимирския Божией матери к Воздвижении честного креста Господня писана Рославовым”. -
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. -
The image of the Mother of God with the Child on the icon is in the same state as was the 12th century Byzantine icon of Our Lady of Vladimir in the late 17th century (State Tretyakov Gallery), when the next coats of paint concealed the original painting. A board with border scenes depicting the history of the creation of the icon of Our Lady of Vladimir was made for the icon painted by Afanasy Ryazantsev in 1692. -
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. -
Our Lady is depicted waist-length.Our Lady is holding the Divine Child in Her right arm, Her head is turned to the right.The Divine Child presses His cheek to Her Cheek and embraces His Mother.The Divine Child’s face is turned upwards.The Divine Child’s Right hand touches Our Lady’s shoulder.The Divine Child’s legs are covered with the chiton, His left leg is bent revealing His foot. -
Our Lady is depicted waist-length. Our Lady is holding the Divine Child in Her right arm, Her head is turned to the right.The Divine Child presses His cheek to Her Cheek and embraces His Mother.The Divine Child’s face is turned upwards.The Divine Child’s right hand touches Our Lady’s shoulder. The Divine Child’s legs are covered with the chiton. His left leg is bent revealing His foot. On the raised flat borders of the icon panel are the saints looking at Our Lady- St.Basil the Great, St.Gregory the Theologian, St.Anna and an unknown saint. -
Our Lady holding the Divine Child with Her right hand is depicted waist-length. -
A half-length image of the Mother of God. The Holy Virgin is shown holding the Infant Christ upon her right hand, with her head inclined to the right. The Child presses his cheek against his mother’s face embracing her by the neck, His face looks upward. The Child’s right hand is stretched forward touching the right shoulder of the Mother of God. Christ’s legs are covered with a chiton up to his feet, his left leg is bent so that his foot can be seen. The icon was repainted several times. On the reverse side of the icon is a depiction of the Throne and the Instrument of Passion. -
In comparison with the ancient miracle-working icon of Our Lady of Vladimir and its copy of the late 14th – beginning of the 15th century some iconographic traits of this icon are different. The Divine Child doesn’t embrace His Mother’s neck, instead of this His hand is extended towards Her shoulder. His unusually large head is depicted practically at the same level as Hers. The face of Our Lady is framed by the wide hem of the omophorion which is close to Christ’s chest to the left. -
Our Lady is depicted with Child Jesus sitting on Her right hand. This icon may copy the iconography of early venerable versions. However the iconographer was not quite accurate due to poor condition of the archetype or the incasement covering the icon. Thus the left hand of the Divine Child which embraces Our Lady is covered with ochroid himation put on the shoulder. The brown omophorion with the golden hem can be seen between their inclined faces – just like the copies which show only one hand of the Divine Child. Furthermore, the iconographer may have decided to show his own version of the subject. He depicted Christ in the red blouse with a green belt instead of the traditional golden chiton. -
In the centerpiece is shown Our Lady of Vladimir. 10 oval aureoles with the saints are depicted on the wide dark green borders of the icon. In the centre of the upper border is depicted the prepared Throne with archangels Michael and Gabriel; on the left border are shown saints Silouan and Andrew of Crete; on the right border are saint archdeacon Stephen and reverend Poemen; the lower border represents martyr St. Theodore Tyron, Venerable Mary of Egypt and reverend Febronia of Murom. -
The icon is composed of 14 border scenes featuring the Mother of God and the saints. -
Our Lady of Tenderness (Our Lady of Vladimir) with the border scenes
The centerpiece shows Our Lady of Vladimir. Border scenes: 1.The Holy Trinity 2.The offering of the Holy Gifts of Sts. Joachim and Anne 3.Joachim’s and Anna’s offerings are rejected by the high priest 4.St. Joachim prays for a child 5.St. Anne prays for a child 6.Meeting of Sts. Joachim and Anne at the Golden gates 7.Prayers before the icon of Our Lady of Vladimir 8.The priest blesses Mary 9.Sts. Joachim and Anne are cuddling up the newly-born Mary 10. The Meeting of the icon of Our Lady of Vladimir 11.The Nativity of the Virgin Mary 12. The Presentation in the Temple 13. The prayer for the sticks 14. The betrothel of Joseph and Mary 15.The Annunciation by the well 16.The Annunciation 17. The Nativity of Christ 18.The prayer of the Mother of God on the Mount of Olives 19.The Ever-Watchful Eye of Our Lord 20. The Annunciation of archangel Gabriel of Mary’s death 21.The Holy Virgin bids farewells to the holy women of Jerusalem -
The icon in the casing. Waist-length depiction of Our Lady. She is holding Child Jesus in Her right hand, Her head is inclined to the right. The Divine Child presses His cheek against His Mother’s face and His left hand embraces Her, His face is turned upwards. The right hand of the Divine Child is extended towards the shoulder of Our Lady. Christ’s legs are covered with chiton down to His feet and the left leg is bent showing the foot. -
Vladimir icon of the Mother of God with the Selected Saints
Apparently, this icon is a copy of the venerated relic of the Rostov Cathedral. The center of the upper border shows the scene of Transfiguration of Our Lord and at its sides are the waist-length depictions of bowing archangels Michael and Gabriel in the aureoles. On the right and on the left borders are shown the figures of the selected saints according to the hierarchy.There are prophet John the Forerunner and apostle Paul, apostles Peter and John the Theologian, saints Nicholas and Alexis, saint warriors Theodore of Tyre and Theodore Stratelates, martyresses Tatiana and Anastasia.
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The icon is likely to be one of the early copies of the first Rostov image of Our Lady (Vladimir iconographic type) that did not survive. In contrast to the ancient Byzantine image this icon represents the hands of the Holy Virgin practically at the same level and the left foot of the Divine Child is depicted much higher than the right one. The restoration of the early 20th century during which the icon was repainted and its original golden background was completely cleared distorted the icon. -
The icon belongs to the iconographic type known as Tenderness (Umilenie). It is derived from the 12th century wonderworking icon of Our Lady of Vladimir but has specific iconographic features which are believed to have maintained the traces of a 14th copy of the icon that did not survive to this day.
