Bulgarian Handpainted Icon of Virgin Mary, Mother of God

Size: 12 X 16 cm
The Orthodox Church holds Mother of God in greatest respect and veneration. In total, over 700 references to the icons of Our Lady are known, among which as most popular rank the following iconographic types: Hodegetria (guiding), Eleousa (sympathetic/compassioante), Theotokos (Mother of God).
We offer you a hand painted icon of Virgin Mary, Mother of God. The icon is made in Bulgaria, according to the Bulgarian orthodox painting traditions after 17th c.
It was approximately then that the icon painting in Bulgaria started to turn to reality and the role of didactic rules began to diminish.
This is especially evident from some of the bright colors employed for the painting of this icon (the employment of pink and light green colors). The harsh, severe tones typical of the Middle Ages have given way to more lively colors full of light and inspiration.
For the make of the icon was used dark stained wood. The icon is tempera painted, and Saint Mary is presented as holding baby Christ in her arms.
The saint wears a red mantle, the red color being associated with faith and divinity and GodÂ’s light.
The icon we offer you makes an excellent gift for your friends and family and it will remind you of the intransient values we, human beings, have a tendency to forget about now and then.

General information In 865 the Bulgarians were THE FIRST Slavonic people to adopt Christianity from Byzantium as its official religion.
Since then the icon, venerated as an especially sacred object of cult and rite, has developed as a fundamental part of the Bulgarian art from the ninth century until present days.
The Bulgarian icon painters had left their deep mark in the overall development of Christian Orthodox Art. Their trail can be seen in the monasteries of Mount Athos and the south-west Balkans, or in Wallachia, Moldavia and Russia, whose icon masters had followed the Bulgarian canonical pattern.
The rich historical background of the Bulgarian icon and the fact that it is a result of the efforts of a small but gifted nation makes it an inseparable element of European cultural history.