ICON OF THE AKATHIST TO OUR LADY

The icon of the Akathist to Our Lady was painted by a Greek master in Novgorod or Moscow in the third quarter of the 14th century. It is one of the earliest examples of the theme of the Akathist to the Mother of God, which is presented here in twenty-five marginal scenes framing the centrepiece depicting the Virgin and Child and the prophets glorifying Her. The position of marginal scenes does not correspond to the order of the verses of the Akathist Kontakion and Ikos but is semantically divided into the illustrations of the earthly life of Our Lady and the Nativity of Christ in the lower part, and symbolical and theological interpretations of the images of Christ and the Mother of God in the upper part of the icon. The marginal scenes representing themes connected with the veneration of the wonder-working icon of the Theotokos Hodegetria in Constantinople are of particular interest. The artistic style of the icon of the Akathist to Our Lady is marked by great emotionality in the interpretation of gestures and facial expressions of the characters, saturation and brightness of colour, density and pictorial expressiveness of the painting manner characteristic of many provincial Byzantine monuments of the 1450s-60s.