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The Life of an icon was no longer than a hundred years.
Then the image on it grew dark because drying oil changed its colour,
and it got covered with soot from the candles. Therefore, the image was
renovated: New ones were applied upon hardly visible outlines. In the
20th century, when restoration techniques became more perfect, suddenly
bright, pure colours showed through under the old layer of drying oil.
The world was astonished by Russian icons at the first exhibition of Old
Russian Art, which took place in Moscow in 1913. There, for the first
time, the restored masterpieces of Moscow and Novgorod schools, 14-16th
centuries were exhibited. The beauty of this newly opened trend of art
was amazing: luminous bright colours, unusual composition, our ancestors'
wise vision of the world.
It was one of the most remarkable findings of the 20th century. Russian
church painting appeared to the world as a unique phenomenon possessing
enormous artistic meaning.
In the 20th century restorers mastered the art of opening the old layers
of painting, preserved under the layers of later paintings. "Mother
of God of Vladimir" of the 12th century is one of the revived masterpieces.
The painting of this icon was disclosed in 1918-1919. Restoration work
was carried out by a group of specialists under the direction of A. Anisimov.
I. Grabar described the process of work over this icon: "It was our
belief that all the elements of this or that epoch found on the artwork
had to be carefully preserved. That is why we only eliminated (removed)
the layers concealing the older ones, scrupulously fixing the removed
pieces. Thus, each epoch is precisely identified, revealing the entire
history of the icon."
Vladimir's icon of the Mother of God has a long and difficult history.
It was painted in Byzantium in the 12th century. The canonic type of this
icon was called in Byzantium "Eleousa", which means "merciful".
In Russia "Eleusa" was translated as "of tender feeling",
which conveys very accurately the essence of the image.The Virgin Mary
is full of anxious tenderness towards her Son, who has His arm around
her neck affectionately clinging to His Mother's cheek. The eyes of the
Theotokos generate great pathos. She is looking directly at the person
standing before Her. There is infinite tenderness, infinite sadness and
eternal question in Her gaze.
How to meet this look? How to ascend to communicate with the Birth-Giver
of God? Only through humility and prayer…Such is a true icon. …
 This
image of the Mother of God has no equal in the entire art world. The icon
was brought in about 1136 to Kiev from Constantinople, and later, in 1155,
was taken by Prince Andrew Bogolyubsky to the town of Vladimir. The icon's
name derives from the name of the town. In 1395 it was brought to the
Cathedral of Dormition in the Kremlin, but soon was returned to Vladimir
again. It got to Moscow for the second time in 1480, where it can be seen
now.
The icon was renovated four times: first, in the first half of the 13th
century, at the beginning of the 15th century, then in 1514 and 1896.
Only the faces of the Theotokos and baby-Christ as well as His left hand
belong to the old Byzantine painting of the 12th century. The rest was
painted by Russian artists. It is believed that restoration work at the
beginning of 15th century was completed by Andrew Rublov. |
