BYZANTINE ICON: “MADONNA OF TENDERNESS”
TECHNIQUE: Acrylic paint on pinstripe board (1.8 cm thick multilayer) / frame carved in solid wood, pinstripe and covered with orion leaf
TOTAL DIMENSIONS : 65 cm X 38 cm
ICON READING GUIDE:
Our Lady of Tenderness, also known as “Our Lady of Vladimir” or “Theotokos of Vladimir” (“Theotokos” Greek word meaning “Mother of God”).
At the top of the icon, there are the Greek letters MP (on the left) and OY (on the right), which are monograms indicating “Mother of God”.
The letters IC XC in the central right area, indicate “Iesus” and “Cristos” respectively, while those on the halo of the Child ( Ο Ω Ν) mean “He who is”.
Mary holds the Child on her right arm, holds him to herself and tilts her head until she touches the cheek of her Son.
It is a representation of a tender embrace, but the one who really embraces is not the Mother, but the Son; it is the Child Jesus who, by embracing the Mother, symbolises his embrace to all humanity.
Three Syriac stars, two on the shoulders (one is covered by the child) and one on the Madonna’s forehead, indicate the dogma of her virginity (before, after and during childbirth).
The colours of the garments reflect the exact inverse of those of the icon of Christ wearing a red tunic, symbol of his divine nature, covered by a blue cloak, a sign of his humanity.
Here, on the other hand, the Mother of God, as a descendant of Adam but divinised by grace, wears a blue robe (symbol of her human nature) covered by a red cloak (symbol of her divine nature); the robe is the “maphorion”, the dress of consecrated virgins.
The Child wears an Ochre dress, a colour that in the tradition indicates the belonging to the divine’s plane of creation.
