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MOTHER OF GOD "JOY TO ALL WHO GRIEVE" (WITH COINS)

Creator(s): Unknown

Currently in storage


About this object

The Mother of God stands full length against a wedgewood blue sky, the ground beneath her cinnamon pink and two tall palm fronds framing her. She wears a brown maphorion with yellow border over a dark blue gown and a white veil covers her head and shoulders. Her arms are opened wide as if to acknowledge and protect the pitiful figures of the naked, ailing and sorrowful humans huddled on either side of her, with four haloed angels tending to their needs. Two ribbons above their heads read "You cloth the naked" and "You heal the sick," with the inscription "Joy to all who grieve" directly above. Small circles representing the twelve coins that miraculously adherred to the original icon during a thunderstorm in 1888 are painted across the surface. The bust length image of Christ is placed in an eye-shaped cloud bank in the top polia, directly above the Mother of God. The polia is olive green with a yellow filenka and a white line marks the luzga. The rather crude and hasty painting is typical of the mass produced icons made in large numbers for pilgrims visiting famous shrines such as the chapel in St. Petersburg where this miracle-working icon was housed.

Object name:
MOTHER OF GOD "JOY TO ALL WHO GRIEVE" (WITH COINS)
Made from:
Tempera on wood
Made in:
Russia
Date made:
1888-1917
Size:
11.1 × 8.7 cm (4 3/8 × 3 7/16 in.)

Detailed information for this item

Catalog number:
54.81
Class:
ICON
Signature marks:
INSCRIPTION; LABEL on recto: "IS KHR", "VSEKH SKORBIASHCHIKH RADOST", "NAGI ODEVASH?", "BOL ISHCHELESH"; on verso "67.527 Russ" (on label)
Credit line:
Gift of Madame Augusto Rosso, 1966