Virgin of Sorrows – Serigraph on Naturally Aged Wood – Mount Athos

Description

Icon of the Virgin’s Lament on Naturally Aged Wood

An icon on naturally aged wood featuring a relatively rare subject, the Lament of the Virgin, as she receives the dead body of Her Son.

In this icon, the Theotokos, immediately after the Deposition of Jesus from the cross, holds His lifeless body and mourns His death, as He sacrificed Himself for the salvation of mankind. The Virgin is depicted as a mother who deeply loved her only Son and mourns His pain and death. She is shown holding Christ’s body and supporting His head with one hand. Her face reflects pain, deep sorrow, and the sense of loss of a mother who has just lost her child.

Representations of the Virgin holding the dead Christ in her arms are works of post-Byzantine artists, particularly from Crete. They combine Byzantine and Renaissance iconographic elements.

The history of this particular icon begins even before the Athonite monk completes the representation. It is a beautiful piece of art, as even the wood used for the base is a part of Mount Athos, coming from a renovated Athonite cell. After appropriate treatment, it was transformed into an icon that carries with it a small piece of the history of the Athonite State.

As the image is handmade and the wood treatment is done by hand, there may be slight variations in the wood, but not in the depiction.

The icon is available upon request.

Origin: Mount Athos

Dimensions: 20 x 23.5 x 2 cm