Our Lady of Podkubenskaya

The icon is a vertical format board with an ark , consisting of an ancient middle part and two new (1970s) side parts. The middle part consists of two boards - lime and pine. At the ends of ancient boards are the remains of wooden nails that secured false keys ; traces of false back keys; two late mortise keys. The pictorial layer - tempera in gesso and pavolok , was preserved only in the middle part ^[2] .

Iconography and Style

The icon "Our Lady of Podkubenskaya" is a variant of the emotion of Our Lady of Tenderness , the iconography of which is very diverse. In its interpretation, it is closest to Our Lady of the Tolga . The inscription “The Image of the Most Holy Theotokos of Tolgsk”, made upon renewal, was on the icon before the restoration of 1966-1974. At the same time, there are several significant differences from the Tolgskaya type, among which, first of all, the pose and position of the Baby's legs (the right leg is raised and turned with the sole to the viewer) and hands (holding the rim of the maforium , and, as it were, slightly opening it).

The Mother of God is depicted to the waist, slightly inclined to the right. The baby is half-sitting on Her left hand. With her head bowed, She with her left hand supports the baby's back, with her right - His legs near the knees. The right foot is raised and facing the viewer. The left leg is extended and abuts against the right hand of the Mother of God. Throwing his head back, the Baby touches the cheek of the Mother of God with her cheek and chin.

The clothes of the Mother of God and the Baby are traditional, with the exception of the light shirt of Christ, decorated with numerous freely scattered small geometric figures (rhombuses, dots, etc.).

This iconographic exodus is probably of Byzantine origin. The closest monument is a fresco in the apse of pareklesia of the Church of Christ the Savior in the Fields of the Choir Monastery in Istanbul (circa 1320 ). On the Byzantine fresco, however, the Mother of God is depicted in full growth and turned to the left, and the Baby clings to the maforius only with his right hand, squeezing the scroll in his left. The location of the fresco facing the scene Resurrection - Descent into hell, written in the conch of the apse, the gusty movements of the Baby, as well as details such as the naked leg and light shirt that Christ is wearing (symbols of the victim), show the eschatological , soteriological meaning of this image ^{[2 ]} . It is also noteworthy that the image of the hands, revealing (or, on the contrary, covering) the edges of clothing, is often found on Roman gravestones and funerary sculptures of the II – III centuries from Palmyra ^[2] .

It comes from the Church of the Resurrection of Christ of the village of Voskresensky, one of two small villages located near the large village of Kubenskoye (in the XIV-XVI centuries - the city of Kubensky). The Resurrection Church was a traveling house church passing by on a pilgrimage to the Cyril-Belozersky monastery of Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible ^[3] .

Authorship and Dating

Before the first clearing in the 1920-1930s, the icon was attributed to Dionysius Glushitsky (XV century). After most experts began to attribute it to the XIV century ( V. A. Bogussevich , I. V. Fedyshin, Yu. A. Olsufiev, V. N. Lazarev). N. A. Dyomina dated the icon to the first half of the 14th century. In favor of dating the first third of the XIV century, the composition of the icon (taking into account the painting of the XVI century on the cleaned side parts), the mean pictorial language, the heavy forms of the relatively large torso of the Mother of God with seemingly flowing outlines, the straightened contours of the figure of the Baby testify.

Restoration and current state of the icon

In the XVI century, the lost original side boards were replaced with two new pine boards, the icon was recorded.

The first trial clearing (the face of Christ) was performed by A. I. Bryagin in the village of Kubenskoye in 1928. In the 1929-1930s, A. I. Bryagin continued the disclosure of the icon in the Vologda Museum.

In 1966-1974, A. N. Ovchinnikov discovered the original painting on the central planks at the State Central Art Museum. The side boards with paintings of the 16th century were removed, new ones were made to replace them.

Link to other images

Eight icons of the XIV-XVI centuries are known that belong to the Podkubenskaya type and one erupted from an unknown icon ^[4] :

• “Tenderness” (XV century) from the Suzdal Pokrovsky monastery ;
• “Tenderness” (XV century) from the Trinity-Sergius Monastery ;
• “Tenderness” (XV century) from the collection of the Italian bank Ambrosiano Veneto , after the merger with Cariplo Bank - Intesa Bank ;
• “Tenderness” (late XV - early XVI century) from the Rostov Kremlin Museum
• “Tenderness” (XVI century) from the former collection of I. S. Ostroukhov , now in the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery
• “Tenderness” (XVI century) from the Suzdal Spaso-Euthymius monastery , now in the collection of the State Russian Museum
• “Tenderness” (XVI century) from the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery

Our Lady of Tenderness Podkubenskaya from the Resurrection Church is the oldest surviving image. It is noteworthy that other well-known icons belong to a slightly different edition. Only on the icon from the Resurrection Church are the following differences from all other known images of this series ^[4] :

• The baby clings to the edges of the maforium with both handles, while on the rest with his right hand He reaches for the face of the Mother of God.
• The Mother of God with her left hand holds the Baby behind his back, on the rest, as on the fresco of the Church of Christ the Savior in the Fields of the Monastery of Choir, from below.
• The baby, clinging with both hands to the edges of the maforium, stands up, His left leg is straightened. On other icons, His pose is more static, He sits on the hands of the Mother of God.
• There is no belt on the Baby.

The existing differences are believed to indicate the existence of the Tenderness of the Mother of God Podkubenskaya from the Resurrection Church and other images of a common photographer ^[5] .

• Orthodox iconography of the Virgin
• Vologda icon painting

• Vzdornov G. I. Our Lady of Tenderness Podkubenskaya. // Monuments of culture. New discoveries. Yearbook 1977. - M., Science, 1977. - S. 192—201.
• Glebova A. A., Maimasov S. B., Petrova T. G. Ancient Russian art in the collection of the Vologda Museum-Reserve. Guide to the exposure. - M .: Sev. Pilgrim, 2004 .-- pp. 11, 20-22, ill. 11, 12.
• Melnik A. G. The genealogy of the iconographic type “Our Lady of Tenderness Podkubenskaya” // Ancient Russia. Questions of Medieval Studies . - 2001. - No. 3 (5) . - S. 34-37 .
• Melnik A.G. Unknown masterpiece of the circle of Dionysius // Kirillov: local historian. almanac. - Vologda, 1998 .-- S. 186—192.
• Rybakov A.A. Vologda Icon. - M., 1995 .-- S. 343, ill. 228-230.
• Rybakov A. A. Artistic monuments of Vologda of the XIII - beginning of XX century. - L., 1980 .-- S. 12, ill. 4, 5, 228-230.
• Yamshchikov S.V. Old Russian painting. New discoveries. - Ed. 2nd, add. - L .: Aurora, 1969. - Tab. 2.