Russian school, possibly Old Believers' Workshops.
"Odighitria".
Tempera on panel.
Work exhibited in "Oriens. Exposició d'icones de l'Eglesia Oriental", Parroquia de Sant Joan, Lleida, 2003.
Measurements: 44 x 38,5 cm.
This half-length Mother of God, with her head slightly inclined, holding the Child Jesus in her left arm, indicating Him with her right arm, is called Odighitria. The term "Odighitria", translated from Greek, means "she who shows the way". It is one of the most recurrent representations of the Mother of God and Jesus in Orthodox iconography. With the indicative gesture, the Virgin tells the viewer that the Truth is behind the Child Jesus, and all those who will follow Him. The present icon is highly decorative, with the red mantle covering her entire head, decorated with three golden medallions with the faces of the archangels St Michael and St Gabriel at the bottom, and St John the Child at the top. The interest of the icon lies especially in the rarity of the indications on the edge of the mantle, with inscriptions of the veneration of the Virgin, and in the embrace that the Child offers to his mother, something completely exceptional in this type of iconography.