Orthodox icon | Mother of God of Vladimir | Vladimirskaja | Silver oklad | 25039

The Mother of God is shown with the child on her right arm. It corresponds to the type of Umilenie icon, which was developed in Byzantium in the 11th century. The Mother of God turns lovingly to the child. The intimate relationship between the two becomes clearly visible, whereby the sorrowful expression of Mother of God is intended to indicate that she can already foresee the Passion that lies in the future.

The icon of Mother of God of Vladimir is celebrated by the Russian Orthodox Church on three different feast days: May 21, June 23 and August 26. She is the most important and famous of all of Russia’s miraculous icons. Every feast day is associated with a great miracle of the icon, which is one of the three portraits of the Mother of God with the child in her arms painted by the apostle Luke: When Mary saw these three pictures, she said: the blessed goodness that was born of me will also be mine with the holy icons “. The icon, later Vladimirskaya, was then brought from Jerusalem to Constantinople in the middle of the 5th century and from there, according to tradition, sent to Kiev in the middle of the 12th century by the Patriarch of Constantinople, Grand Duke Yuri Dolgoruki, who placed the picture in the Devičij Virgin Monastery in Vyshhorod (near Kiev), and in 1155 the Prince of Vyshhorod took it on his Campaign to the north. On the way people prayed in front of the icon and it performed miracles. When they got to the Klyazma River, the horses that carried the icon could not go a step further. The prince then called the place Bogolyubovo (“loved by God”) and built two churches here, in one of which the icon found its place. Later a women’s monastery and the city of Bogolyubov were added. On September 21, 1160, the icon was brought to the city of Vladimir to the large cathedral that was newly built there. From that time on the icon was called “Vladimirskaya”. Since 1395 the icon has been in Moscow in the Dormition Cathedral.

As with icon painting, the materials used to create a decorative oklad have their own symbolism that can tell a lot about the icon hidden underneath. For example, in the case of the auctioned icon, the main material, silver, symbolizes purity and virtue, liberation from sin and salvation of the soul. The enamel represents Christian virtues such as humility, kindness and charity.

Silberoklad, multicolored enamel, hallmarked Moscow 1908-1916: PV Pavel Mikhailovich Volkov.