The Intercessor Type of Marian Iconography: Icons from the Kaliningrad Regional Museum of History and Art

• Main Author: Belyakova P. N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University 2017-09-01
• Series: Слово.ру: балтийский акцент
• Subjects: late russian icon painting; iconography; mother of god the intercessor; agisoritissa; paraklesis; museum; icon
• Online Access: https://journals.kantiana.ru/eng/slovo/3621/10074/
• ISSN: 2225-5346; 2686-8989

Analysing the Intercessor type of Marian iconography, this author identifies the iconographic features of such depictions and explores the transformation that the image has undergone in the Russian icon painting tradition. To achieve this goal, the author employs the methods of comparison and generalisation and traces the transformation of the Byzantine image of Paraklesis into the Intercessor iconographic type of Russian icon painting. By examining the image in more recently painted icons, the author produces its first full description and introduces the 19th-century icon ‘Mother of God the Intercessor of the Deesis row’ from the collection of the Kaliningrad Regional Museum of History and Art. The results of the analysis suggest that the Intercessor type of Marian iconography is characterised by a full- or half-length image, showing Virgin Mary from a distance. She is painted without the Child and holding a scroll. The text on the scroll may vary depending on the shade of meaning the icon painter attempted to convey. However, it always communicates the message of advocacy and intercession of Mother of God for humankind before her Son.