Russian four-panel Quadripartite icon 31x26 cm, 20th century
Russian four-panel Quadripartite icon depicting four celebrated images of the Mother of God from the Orthodox tradition: Our Lady of Kazan, the Unburnt Bush (Burning Bush), Panagia Pantanassa (All‑Praised), and Our Lady of Vladimir. This composition brings together on a single panel some of the most venerated Marian representations in Russian spirituality, each bearing profound theological and devotional meaning. The Mother of God of Kazan is one of Russia's most important icons and was lon...
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Russian four-panel Quadripartite icon depicting four celebrated images of the Mother of God from the Orthodox tradition: Our Lady of Kazan, the Unburnt Bush (Burning Bush), Panagia Pantanassa (All‑Praised), and Our Lady of Vladimir. This composition brings together on a single panel some of the most venerated Marian representations in Russian spirituality, each bearing profound theological and devotional meaning. The Mother of God of Kazan is one of Russia's most important icons and was long regarded as protector of the Russian people and of the Romanov dynasty. According to tradition, in 1612 it accompanied the forces of Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky in the liberation of Moscow from the Polish occupation. The Unburnt Bush refers to the biblical episode in Exodus in which Moses sees the bush burning without being consumed. In Christian tradition this image is read as a prefiguration of the Incarnation: Mary, like the bush, receives the divine presence without being consumed by the fire of divinity. Panagia Pantanassa (All‑Praised) derives from ancient liturgical hymns dedicated to the Virgin. Common from the 17th century onward, this depiction shows the Mother of God half‑length with the Child and evokes the liturgical hymns of praise addressed to the Theotokos in the Orthodox tradition. Our Lady of Vladimir is among the most famous icons of Orthodoxy. Brought from Constantinople to Kiev in the 12th century and later to Vladimir and Moscow, she was honored as protector of Russia. She belongs to the Eleousa (Tenderness) type, where the Child’s cheek rests against the Mother’s, symbolizing the union of the divine and the human. The Russian Orthoox icon is executed on an antique wooden panel prepared with levkas and hand‑painted in egg tempera following the Russian iconographic tradition. It is delivered with an expert’s certificate and in an elegant blue velvet box.
Origin: Moscow, Russia.
Technique: egg tempera.
Materials: wooden panel prepared with levkas.
Dimensions: 31.2 x 26.2 cm.
Period: 20th century.