ICONS OF THE THEOTOKOS

ICONS OF THE THEOTOKOS. While images of the Theotokos (Virgin Mary [q.v.]) by herself, as frequently in the popular art of Roman Catholicism, are not unknown in Byzantium (qq.v.)-for example the image called the “intercession (deisis),” featuring the Theotokos and Baptist flanking Christ Pantocrator-the favored representation of her is as “Madonna,” the mother carrying the Christ child. Here, however, there are numerous variations, and characteristic of all of them is the portrayal of the child as a small adult: the eternal Word made flesh lifting his hand in blessing. Consistent is an emphasis on these images as theological statements, tied in particular to the Christology of the Ecumenical Councils (qq.v.). With few exceptions, icons of the Theotokos are also icons of Christ.

These iconographic types are not primarily appeals to exalted emotion. The single most significant exception is the type of Madonna known as the glykophilousa (Greek “sweetly kissing”), or oumilenie (Russian “tender compassion”) portraying the mother tenderly embracing the child whose arms are entwined about her neck. Other and, save in Russia, more frequent types are: the hodigitria (“she who shows the Way”) with the mother pointing to the child enthroned on her lap; the gorgoepikousa (“she who is swift to hear”); the platytera (“she whose womb is more spacious than the heavens”) showing the child in triumph within the mother; and the “Lady of the Passion” showing two angels flanking the mother and child and carrying the Cross together with the spear and the sponge (known in the West as “Our Lady of Perpetual Help”). Of the three most famous icons of the Theotokos in Russia, our Lady of Vladimir (11th c. Constantinopolitan work) is of the oumilenie type, while the two others, our Lady of Tikhvin and our Lady of Kazan, are of the hodigitria type. A fourth, the Iveron Madonna, is a copy of the portaitissa (“she who guards the gate”) at the Iveron monastery on Mt. Athos (q.v.), also of the hodigitria type. Each of the Twelve Great Feasts (q.v.) that remembers Mary especially has an icon of her which portrays a historical scene.