Theotokos of Vladimir
Encyclopedia
Eleusa
The Eleusa is a type of depiction of the Virgin Mary in which the infant Jesus Christ is nestled against her cheek.-Depictions:...
Byzantine
Byzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
iconography
Iconography
Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek "image" and "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the...
. The Theotokos
Theotokos
Theotokos is the Greek title of Mary, the mother of Jesus used especially in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Churches. Its literal English translations include God-bearer and the one who gives birth to God. Less literal translations include Mother of God...
(Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
word for Virgin Mary, literally meaning "Birth-Giver of God") is regarded as the holy protectress of Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. The icon
Icon
An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...
is displayed in the Tretyakov Gallery
Tretyakov Gallery
The State Tretyakov Gallery is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, the foremost depository of Russian fine art in the world.The gallery's history starts in 1856 when the Moscow merchant Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov acquired works by Russian artists of his day with the aim of creating a collection,...
, Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. Her feast day is June 3. Even more than most famous icons, the original has been copied repeatedly for centuries. Many copies now have considerable artistic and religious significance of their own. The icon is a version of the Eleusa
Eleusa
The Eleusa is a type of depiction of the Virgin Mary in which the infant Jesus Christ is nestled against her cheek.-Depictions:...
(tenderness) type, with the Christ child snuggling up to his mother's cheek.
About 1131 the Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
Patriarch
Patriarch of Constantinople
The Ecumenical Patriarch is the Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome – ranking as primus inter pares in the Eastern Orthodox communion, which is seen by followers as the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church....
Luke Chrysoberges
Luke Chrysoberges
Luke Chrysoberges was Patriarch of Constantinople between 1156 and 1169.During Luke's patriarchate several other major theological controversies occurred. In 1156–1157 the question was raised, whether Christ had offered himself as a sacrifice for the sins of the world to the Father and to the Holy...
of Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
sent the icon as a gift to Grand Duke
Grand Duke
The title grand duke is used in Western Europe and particularly in Germanic countries for provincial sovereigns. Grand duke is of a protocolary rank below a king but higher than a sovereign duke. Grand duke is also the usual and established translation of grand prince in languages which do not...
Yury Dolgoruky of Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
. The image was kept in the Mezhyhirskyi Monastery
Mezhyhirskyi Monastery
The Mezhyhirya Transfiguration Monastery is a ruined Eastern Orthodox monastery that used to serve as a historic Prince-residency during the Medieval times located near the city of Vyshhorod . Today, the territory it used to be located in is part of the Vyshhorod Raion of Kiev Oblast in northern...
until Dolgoruky's son Andrey Bogolyubskiy brought it to his favourite city, Vladimir
Vladimir
Vladimir is a city and the administrative center of Vladimir Oblast, Russia, located on the Klyazma River, to the east of Moscow along the M7 motorway. Population:...
, in 1155. Tradition tells that the horses transporting the icon stopped near Vladimir and refused to go further. People interpreted this as a sign
Omen
An omen is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change...
that the Theotokos wanted her icon to stay in Vladimir. To house the icon, the great Assumption Cathedral
Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir
Dormition Cathedral in Vladimir used to be a mother church of medieval Russia in the 13th and 14th centuries...
was built there, followed by other churches dedicated to the Virgin throughout Ukraine.
In 1395, during Tamerlane's invasion, the image was taken from Vladimir to the new capital, Moscow. The spot where people and the ruling prince met the icon is commemorated by the Sretensky Monastery
Sretensky Monastery
Sretensky Monastery is a monastery in Moscow, founded by Grand Prince Vasili I in 1397. It used to be located close to the present-day Red Square, but in the early 16th century it was moved northeast to what is now Bolshaya Lubyanka Street...
. Vasili I of Moscow
Vasili I of Russia
Vasiliy I Dmitriyevich was Grand Prince of Moscow from 1389.He was the oldest son of Dmitri Donskoi and Grand Princess Eudoxia, daughter of Grand Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich of Nizhny Novgorod.-Domestic policy:...
spent a night crying over the icon, and Tamerlane's armies retreated the same day. The Muscovites refused to return the icon to Vladimir and placed it in the Cathedral of the Dormition
Cathedral of the Dormition
The Cathedral of the Dormition is a Russian Orthodox church dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos. It is located on the north side of Cathedral Square of the Moscow Kremlin in Russia, where a narrow alley separates the north from the Patriarch's Palace with the Twelve Apostles Church....
of the Moscow Kremlin
Moscow Kremlin
The Moscow Kremlin , sometimes referred to as simply The Kremlin, is a historic fortified complex at the heart of Moscow, overlooking the Moskva River , Saint Basil's Cathedral and Red Square and the Alexander Garden...
. The intercession of the Theotokos through the image was credited also with saving Moscow from Tatar hordes in 1451 and 1480.
The icon of the Theotokos of Vladimir is sometimes described as expressing universal feelings of motherly love and anxiety for her child. By the 16th century, the Vladimirskaya (as the Russians
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
call it) was a thing of legend
Legend
A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude...
. A pious custom of the church asserted that the icon was painted by St Luke. The venerated image was used in celebration of coronations of tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
s, elections of patriarchs, and other important ceremonies of state. In December 1941, as the Germans approached Moscow, Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
allegedly ordered that the icon be placed in an airplane and flown around the besieged capital. Several days later, the German army started to retreat.
As a work of art, the Theotokos is widely regarded as the most important icon produced during the Comnenian period. Scholars believe that it expresses deeper humanity and emotionality than that typical of previous Byzantine art
Byzantine art
Byzantine art is the term commonly used to describe the artistic products of the Byzantine Empire from about the 5th century until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453....
. As David Talbot Rice asserts in the latest edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, "it is of considerable importance in the history of painting, for it not only is a work of outstandingly high quality but also is in a new, more human style, anticipating the late Byzantine style that flourished between 1204 and 1453."
See also
- Eleusa icon
- Our Lady of Vladimir Church – a church in St. Petersburg, is painted in gold and black, the colours of the Theotokos of Vladimir
- Our Lady of St. Theodore - a miraculous icon said to be painted after the Vladimirskaya