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 1482.
Dionysii. From the Cathedral of the Ascension Convent, Moscow Kremlin.
This miraculous icon was painted on a much older board. The original icon
is known from the chronicles to be destroyed in the conflagration of 1482:
«The icon of Hodegitria burnt in Moscow in the stone Church of the Ascension
of Our Lord, a miracle-working image of Our Lady of Greek painting. It
was made in the same dimensions as the miraculous icon in Constantinople
which did leave its abode for the seaside on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
The fire destroyed the painting and the case alone, while the board survived,
and on this board Dionysii the icon-painter hath recreated the same image.»
The ancient icon of the Kremlin convent, copied from the Constantinopolitan
Hodegitria, is presumed to be one of the two icons brought to Russia in
the 14th century by Archbishop Dionysii of Suzdal, a confessor to Princess
Eudoxia, foundress of the Ascention convent. The icon was commemorated
on July 7, the day of Princess Eudoxia's demise, which coincided with
the feast of the Hodegitria of Blachernitissa, brought to Moscow in 1654.
The icon of the Ascension Convent led religious processions on June 23
and August 26, in which Metropolitans, the Patriarch and the Grand Princes
took part. The iconographic pattern of this particular image generally
corresponds to the Hodegetria of Blachernai, though digressing from it
in some details, for instance, the scroll which the Child holding, resting
it on His knee - a detail characteristic of several copies of Our Lady
of Smolensk, in particular, those of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Smolensk
in the Novodevichi Convent, Moscow. |
