19th Century, Icon With The Madonna And Child, Painting On Wood And Silver Copper Coating

19th Century, Icon with the Madonna and Child, Painting on Wood and Silver Copper Coating

The icon from the Greek Orthodox areas was made in the nineteenth century and features a painting on wooden board and a copper embossed silver-plated and gold-plated coating.
The work depicts the Madonna and Child. According to the tradition of the Church of the Christian East, the first painter of the Virgin would have been the evangelist Saint Luke, who would have portrayed the Madonna live according to three types from which derive the three most widespread canonical types.
The Mother of God said “of Tenderness”, holds the Child in a tender embrace; the Mother of God said “Praying” or “of the Sign” which holds her arm as a sign of prayer; The Mother of God said “that indicates the Way”, with the hand pointing to the Child in his arms. These icon responds to the latter type: the Mother of God points to the Divine Son with her hand, as the 'only 'Way of Salvation'. The Virgin, depicted half-torso, is reclined towards the Child on her left. The Son of God, despite being depicted as an infant in the arms of his Mother, is already endowed with the features of an adult, to signify his awareness of the redemptive predestination, that is, of his future Passion, Death and Resurrection to the salvation of mankind. Jesus imparts the blessing with his right hand.
An icon is not simply a religious painting. Unlike Western art, which from about 1300 moves away from this conception, the icon is the invocation of the presence of what is depicted, a prayer that passes through the colours, shapes, lines.
The icon really aides the encounter with the God, with the Mother of God, with the Saints for those who approach it with faith. It is a sacramental. The second Council of Nicaea (787), the last of the undivided Church, recognized its legitimacy, stating that "the believer who venerates the icon venerates the reality of those who have been reproduced in it".
This icon is equipped with a rich coating, or a decorative coating of the icon that mostly affects the halos, background and clothing, leaving uncovered only the faces, hands and feet of the characters represented). The coating of this icon is embossed copper and silver. It is a valuable work of chiseling with a style that was widely spread in the nineteenth century. Presumably the work was destined to occupy a privileged position, exposed to veneration inside a rich private house. The elaborate ornamental motifs of the coating are emphasized thanks to the precious gold on the halos of the Virgin and Child.

Good state of conservation.
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We apologize for any errors in translation from Italian.