Panel, Virgin and Child.

Arched steatite panel with a moulded border. Carved in relief with a figure of the Virgin and Child. The Child with a cruciform halo is seated on the left arm of the Virgin his right hand delivering a blessing, his left hand holding a scroll. The Virgin wears a maphorion and gestures towards the Christ child. The bottom left and top right corners of the panel have been restored with painted plaster.

Purchased from J.Zoumpoulakis, Athens for £105 under the terms of the Bryan bequest.

Historical significance: The piece must have been of good workmanship; the drapery is well distributed on the figures, differentiating the parts of the body beneath.

The Virgin Mary, known as the Theotokos in Greek terminology, was central to Byzantine spirituality as one of its most important religious figures. As the mediator between suffering mankind and Christ and the protectress of Constantinople, she was widely venerated.
Most images of the Virgin stress her role as Christ's Mother, showing her standing and holding her son. The manner in which the Virgin holds Christ is very particular. Certain poses developed into "types" that became names of sanctuaries or poetic epithets. For example, the Virgin Hodegetria is a popular representation of the Virgin in which she holds Christ on her left arm and gestures toward him with her right hand, showing that he is the way to salvation. The name Hodegetria comes from the Hodegon Monastery in Constantinople, in which the icon showing the Virgin in this particular stance resided from at least the twelfth century onward, acting to protect the city. Christ holds a scroll in his left hand, symbolising the incarnation of the word of God.


The composition seen on the present panel closely follows that of the Virgin and Child on the central panel of an ivory triptych once in the collection of Lady Ludlow - (Catalogue of the Gibson-Carmichael Sale, Christie's 1902, lot 7) See also a similar plaque cited by Brisby in Apollo, Dec. 1996 p.55).

This panel is carved from steatite, a usually green or buff stone, which was carved by Byzantine craftsmen into icons and pendants. It is easier to carve than ivory and also more fragile and consequently, many examples are badly worn and are often fragmentary as is the case with the present example.
More than one hundred and seventy examples survive: many represent Christ, or the Virgin, or Christ and the Virgin and several depict military saints. Although often technically and formally simpler than ivories - undercutting is little used - steatite and ivory may well have been carved by the same artists. The small size of steatite icons suggests that they were intended for personal devotion; they may have been placed in private chapels, or carried about the person as a form of amulet.

Byzantine Empire. The drilled hole decoration found on the edges of the Virgin's maphorion and Christ's clavis date the object to late twelfth early thirteenth century (Brisby, C. 1996 and Ioli Kalavrezou-Maxeiner 1985).

The Virgin Mary, known as the Theotokos in Greek terminology, was central to Byzantine spirituality as one of its most important religious figures. As the mediator between suffering mankind and Christ and the protectress of Constantinople, she was widely venerated.
This panel depicting the Virgin and Child is carved from steatite, a usually green or buff stone, which was carved by Byzantine craftsmen into icons and pendants. It is easier to carve than ivory and also more fragile and consequently many examples are badly worn and are often fragmentary. The condition of the panel has suffered and it has been restored with plaster.

The small size of steatite icons suggests that they were intended for personal devotion; they may have been placed in private chapels, or carried about the person as a form of amulet.

A.2-1934