Protection of the Mother of God, or Pokrov Madonna, The

Painting

Purdue University Galleries

Name/Title

Protection of the Mother of God, or Pokrov Madonna, The

Entry/Object ID

2005.02.057

Description

Tempera on curved wooden panel with red and black border before lowered central image. Along the top border is a white Cyrillic caption between five gold onion domes with the Orthodox cross attached to a red cathedral building in the central image. Christ is pictured in the upper left in the clouds holding a white scroll. Rows of worshippers are also on clouds on the left and right of the Virgin, who is in the middle with arms outstretched and a white scroll in her left hand. She also has a white cloth with red crosses stretched between her arms. Below her, a figure stands on a red-pink pedestal with a scroll in his right hand. To the right is a female figure nursing another that is laying down under a red-pink archway and to the left are two crowned figures under another red-pink archway. There is Cyrillic script carved into the back of the wooden panel.

Type of Painting

Panel

Artwork Details

Medium

Tempera

Collection

Betsy Scheuring Icon Collection

Acquisition

Accession

2005.02

Source or Donor

Betsy Scheuring

Acquisition Method

Gift

Credit Line

Gift of Betsy Scheuring

Made/Created

Date made

circa 1700

Place

* Untyped Place

Volodga/Velikiy Ustiug School in Russia

Lexicon

Nomenclature 4.0

Nomenclature Secondary Object Term

Icon

Nomenclature Primary Object Term

Symbol, Religious

Nomenclature Sub-Class

Religious Objects

Nomenclature Class

Ceremonial Objects

Nomenclature Category

Category 08: Communication Objects

Dimensions

Height

12 in

Width

10-1/4 in

Depth

1-1/2 in

Exhibition

Spirit Made Tangible: The Scheuring Icon Collection (2006)

Interpretative Labels

Label Type

Cultural/Historical Context

Label

The word Pokrov (meaning both “veil” and “protection” in Russian) combines two stories celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox calendar on the same day, October 1st. It represents the miraculous appearance of the Mother of God in a church in Constantinople in 911 during a Saracen invasion. She is shown standing on a cloud with her arms outstretched in prayer, holding a veil which would protect the people below. A host of saints and angels surrounds her. The exterior of a five-domed church is indicated behind her, as well as a cut-away view into the interior. We can see columns, arches and leaded-glass windows, and a scene of the Presentation of the Cross appears above her head. St. Andrew, the Holy Fool for Christ’s Sake (dressed only in a blanket), points up at her on the right. The emperor and empress and the patriarch of Constantinople stand on the left. The second story involves the young man standing on an elaborate podium below the Mother of God, Romanos the Melodist, a composer of hymns shown holding a scroll with the words of his famous hymn to Mary. The scene in the lower right shows the Virgin offering a scroll to the composer during a dream, thus inspiring him. The colors used in this painting, dark green, brown, light ochre and red, are typical of late 17th-century icons.