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Middle of the16th century. Moscow.
Tradition links the protograph of this icon with Prince Igor Olegovich
of Chernigov and Novgorod-Seversky. His ascent to the Kievan throne in
1146 triggered off popular unrest, and the citizens called Izyaslav Mstislavich
to reign. The Igor's troops were routed. He took monastic vows and entered
the St. Theodore monastery at Kiev. The feudal strife went on, and led
Igor to martyrdom. He was seized in his monastic cell, tormented and killed
in 1147, on September 19 (his commemoration day). Before his cruel death,
the prince prayed before his cell-icon which later came to be known as
Our Lady of Igor and earned the reputation of miracle-working.
The icon is commemorated June 5, the day when Prince Igor's relics were
buried with honours in 1150.
As late as the start of this century, the protograph — encased in gilded
silver and with an inscription relating its history — was in the chapel
of St. John the Divine of the Dormition Cathedral at the Kiev Cave Monastery.
It is now gone, but numerous copies are available.
A  reduced
shoulder-length variant of the renowned Our Lady of Vladimir, most of
its copies repeat the small size of the protograph, intended for a monastic
cell, and closely follow the iconography of Our Lady of Vladimir. Its
iconographic composition reflects the ancient practice of copying much-worshipped
icons reduced in size. This, perhaps, was how the iconography of Our Lady
of Igor emerged as a miniature copy of the Constantinopolitan image before
it was taken from Kiev by Prince Andrei Bogolubsky eventually to become
known as Our Lady of Vladimir.
The Tretyakov collection icon closely follows the original iconography,
which was characteristic of the time of Metropolitan Macarii (1542-1563),
whose Novgorodian and Moscow workshops imitated old venerated icons down
to the smallest iconographic detail. |
