Madonna and Child (Icon of Panagia Glykofilousa): Virgin of Tenderness

Location

Country: Other
City: public exhibitions

The Virgin is here presented in a shawl, trimmed with gold. The star on her forehead may be a reference to her Jewish name, Miriam, which translates literally as ‘star of the sea’. Christ is held tenderly but seems more like a small adult in classical drapery than a vulnerable baby. He nuzzles his mother’s face and looks up at her, while she gazes out towards the viewer, perhaps mirroring her role in prayers on behalf of others. Christ holds a scroll, a motif that appears in other icons of the Virgin of Tenderness, which may anticipate the episode when Christ read from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah.

Although the word ‘icon’ is used in modern Greek to mean simply ‘image’, it refers more specifically in its art historical context to this particular type of devotional image, associated with the Eastern Church. In its portrayal of a relationship between the two holy figures, this work is one of the more naturalistic of icon types; but truth to nature was not the intention of the artist. Painters of icons worked, and in many places continue to work, within a religious tradition in which icons serve a purpose which is connected to both spirituality and the practice of public worship.

Places

Subjects

devotional, baby, robe, child, New Testament, Jesus, saint, Madonna

Materials & Techniques

gold leaf, panel, egg tempera, gesso, tempera painting

Artist

Cretan 17th century unknown

Title

Madonna and Child (Icon of Panagia Glykofilousa): Virgin of Tenderness

Date

c.1600-1650

Medium

Egg tempera and gold leaf on panel

Dimensions

height: 78.50 cm, width: 58.50 cm

Acquisition

Presented by the Mayor of Athens, March 1941

Provenance

Presented to the British Embassy, Athens, by the Mayor of Athens, March 1941

GAC number

6638