The Mother of God Hodigitria, Crete, Greece, 16th century

the Virgin clad in the Imperial purple maphorion with gold highlights holds the Christ Child with her left hand, flanked by the Archangels Michael and Gabriel holding open scrolls with the Greek inscriptions Hail Gracious V(irgin) and Hail Divine Throne (sic), to the right a verse of the Akathistos Hymn is inscribed

Recklinghausen, Icon Museum, Inv. Nr. L771

The iconography, well known through numerous examples, is a copy of the famous palladium of Constantinople, which was destroyed when Constantinople fell to the Turks in 1453. The offered lot is clearly the work of a painter with a high command of the qualities of Constantinopolitan art, introduced and developed after the Fall of Constantinople. The modelling and application of the white highlights on the faces and the elegant, elongated hands of the Virgin are typical examples of 16^th century Cretan art carrying on the tradition of the 15^th century icon painting.

For two comparable icons from Crete, dated at the beginning and end of 15^th century, please see Chatzedakis, Eikones Kritikis Technis, 1993, pp. 137, 149