Object types
painting (scope note | all objects)
icon (scope note | all objects)
Title (object)
The Mother of God, ‘Joy to all who Grieve’
Materials
wood (all objects)
silver (scope note | all objects)
gesso (all objects)
Techniques
painted (scope note | all objects)
leaf-gilded (scope note | all objects)
gessoed (scope note | all objects)
Production place
Made in Russia (scope note | all objects)
Made in Kholui (?) (all objects)
Date
19thC(late)-20thC(early)
Description
Icon; painted; in the centre is the full-length figure of the Virgin Mary dressed in a white veil and flanked by two palm branches. Above her, in clouds, is the half-length figure of Christ. To either side of her are groups of suffering humans. Studding the Virgin’s garments, an area to the right of her head, and above her, are depictions of small coins.
Inscriptions: in Church Slavonic on two scrolls: at left: НАГИМ ОДЕЯНИЕ (Clothes for those who are naked); at right: БОЛЬНЫМ ИСЦЕЛЕНИЕ (Health to those who are sick); on the lower border: КОПИЯ С ИКОНЫ БОЖЬЕЙ МАТЕРИ ВСЕХ СКОРБЯЩИХ РАДОСТИ ЧТО НА СТЕКОЛЬНОМ ЗАВОДЕ В С. ПЕТЕРБУРГЕ (Copy of the icon of the Virgin 'Joy For All Who Grieve’ in the glass factory in St Petersburg); above the Virgin in Greek: MP ΘV (Mother of God); in Christ's halo, in Greek: (O)W(N) (I am Being).
Egg tempera, silver, gesso on wood.
Inscriptions
Inscription Type: inscription
Inscription Script: Cyrillic
Inscription Position: border
Inscription Language: Church Slavonic
Inscription Comment: identifying image
Inscription Type: inscription
Inscription Script: Cyrillic
Inscription Position: left scroll
Inscription Language: Church Slavonic
Inscription Type: inscription
Inscription Script: Cyrillic
Inscription Position: right scroll
Inscription Language: Church Slavonic
Inscription Type: inscription
Inscription Script: Greek
Inscription Position: above figures
Inscription Language: Greek
Inscription Comment: identifying figures
Inscription Type: inscription
Inscription Script: Greek
Inscription Position: Christ's halo
Inscription Language: Greek
Dimensions
Height: 22.4 centimetres
Width: 18.2 centimetres
Thickness: 4 centimetres
Condition
Made from a single panel; a vertical crack in the upper centre has led to losses of paint, especially on the face of Christ. The painting is covered with a dark coating of ‘olifa’.
Curator's comments
The image of the Virgin Mary with Child called ‘Joy to all who Grieve’ was initially venerated in Moscow in 1688 when the icon healed a number of people in the church of the Transfiguration at Ordynka. After this event a great number of copies were made and spread throughout Russia. It is said that the miracle-working icon was brought from Moscow to St Petersburg in 1711. One of the later iconographic versions, ‘with coins’, reflects a miracle which occurred on 23 July 1888 when a bolt of lightning burned down the chapel of a glass factory in Sestroretsk near St Petersburg, where a copy of the icon was kept. During the fire 12 coins from a charity box were fused to the surface of the icon. One subsequently fell off, leaving only 11. The icon started to heal people shortly after the fire. A new stone church (designed by A. von Gogen and A. Ivanov) was erected in 1898 on the money donated by the faithful to the icon. From 1888 copies of this icon were much in demand by the citizens of St Petersburg and they were produced in great quantities by the icon painters of Mstera and Kholui, always depicting just the 11 coins.
Published:
Cormack 2007, 137, no. 98
Subject
virgin mary (scope note | all objects)
christ (scope note | all objects)
Associated names
Named in inscription & portrayed Virgin Mary (biographical details | all objects)
Named in inscription & portrayed Jesus Christ (biographical details | all objects)
Acquisition date
1993
Acquisition name
Donated by HM Customs & Excise (biographical details | all objects)
Acquisition notes
One of thirty-nine icons seized from a Latvian ship by HM Customs and Excise, Avonmouth.
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