ST ALEXIUS THE MAN OF GOD AND ST MARY OF EGYPT

The small icon St Alexius The Man of God and St Mary of Egypt was created in 1648 by the tsarist icon painter Yakov Rudakov (Kazanets). The images of these saints, the heavenly patrons of Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich and his first wife Maria Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya, frequently appeared on icons in the mid-17th century. The image of Our Lady of the Sign, a family relic of the House of Romanov, is placed at the top of the icon. A delicate ochre and pinkish-blue colours and delicate and refined brushwork are typical of the first half of the 17th-century icons.