Icon depicting "Mother of God of Tikhvin" (lot 13), Moscow Academy, early 19th century

Icon depicting "Mother of God of Tikhvin", egg tempera and gold leaf on panel, Moscow Academy, early 19th century. Measurements: cm 26.2 x 31.3 Price between 2,200.00 / 2,800.00 euros Object accompanied by our certificate of authenticity. The icon, made in egg tempera and gold leaf on panel by an artist from the Moscow Academy in the early 19th century, depicts the Mother of God of Tikhvin, one of the most venerated miraculous images in Russia. The Madonna is depicted with her head tilted towards the Child, who crosses his right leg under the other. This icon is a version of the effigy of the Mother of God of Tikhvin, an acheiropoieta Marian icon that miraculously appeared in the late 14th century on the Tikhvina River in the territory of Novgorod, where the Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God was later built and, in 1560, the Tikhvinsky Monastery. The monastery escaped the Swedish siege in the years 1613-1615 through the intercession of the Holy Virgin invoked before the miraculous icon. During the occupation in 1941, the icon was taken from the monastery and brought first to Germany, then to the USA where it was kept in the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul in Chicago. In 2004, the icon was returned to Russia and taken back to the Tikhvinsky Monastery. The icon reproduces the Byzantine type of the Hodegetria (according to tradition painted by Saint Luke), that is, of she who shows the way to God and eternal salvation: Mary points to Jesus with her right hand, while turning her gaze to the viewer, as if to indicate to men that the true path is towards Christ. The Child blesses the mother, while crossing his legs showing the bare sole of one foot, perhaps in reference to a passage from Genesis (3:15). In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it was among the most venerated sacred images in Russia and numerous versions were made, among which one is kept at the Uffizi Galleries, signed by Vasilij Grjaznov, and dated July 16, 1728. The devotion continued throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the icon presented here, in good condition and of valuable artistic manufacture, is an example of the private devotion dedicated to her.