Mother of God
Our Lady of Perpetual Help
- date
- 2014
- time taken
- About 2 months
- place
- Częstochowa
- technique
- Lime-wood panel with kovcheg (recessed field) and shponki (battens), levkas (gesso ground), 23 3/4-carat gold, egg tempera, olifa
description
Mother of God of the Passion, or Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Catholicism; in Orthodox iconography, the Suffering Mother of God. The original of this icon is attributed to the Orthodox painter S. Lazarro, and it is dated to between the 9th and 12th centuries.
The icon shows Mary, Jesus and the Archangels Michael and Gabriel. Mary, shown half-length, leans slightly towards Jesus, but she looks not at Him but at the viewer. With her right hand she holds both of Jesus' hands. Sadness can be seen in Mary’s eyes... Jesus rests His hands on His Mother’s hand and leans towards Her, but turns His head towards the Archangel Gabriel, who carries the cross and the nails. The little sandal slipping from Jesus' foot shows us that this sight frightens Him and that He instinctively clings more tightly to His Mother... On the other side of the icon is the Archangel Michael with the instruments of Jesus' coming Passion – the spear, the reed and the vessel of vinegar.
The centre of the icon is the clasped hands of Jesus and Mary.
how it was made
An icon written to commission. The icon is now in Poraj near Częstochowa.