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Dormition of the Virgin, The

Print
This colored lithograph on a silk backed wooden panel with gilding and metal frame shows the Virgin Mary clothed in red, blue, and green robes laid on a bed of white. She is surrounded by eleven male Apostles clothes in cloaks of various colors with sandals, each with gold halos rimmed in red. One on the left holds a black incense burner. On the gold filigree style background, two winged angels clothes in white flank Christ, who holds a white bundle with a face on it. The border of the image contains floral and gold filigree motifs on blue, green, and pink. A Cyrillic caption lines the bottom and another sits under the bottom edge of the frame. A piece of wire is twined in each corner of the icon.

2005.02.019

Lithograph

Betsy Scheuring Icon Collection

2005.02

Betsy Scheuring

Gift

Gift of Betsy Scheuring

1915

Russia

Label

Under bottom edge of frame

АКЦ 0.00 В. БОНАКЕРЪ МОСКВА

Cyrillic

AKC 0.00 V. BONAKERʺ MOSKVA

Icon

Symbol, Religious

Religious Objects

Ceremonial Objects

Category 08: Communication Objects

5-5/8 in

7 in

Spirit Made Tangible: The Scheuring Icon Collection (2006)

Cultural/Historical Context

In this reduced version of the Dormition, Christ lacks a mandorla and instead appears against a gold ground decorated with a floral scroll, as two white-draped angels flank him with covered hands. Eleven Apostles surround the outstretched Virgin, with one of them placed behind her and bent over her form, and another swinging an incense-burner in the left foreground (see 2005.02.049). The figure style of this image is fully Western, and it lacks an architectural background seen in its Byzantine predecessors (see Cat. Nos. 2005.02.071 and 2005.02.049). The border displays a multi-colored floral scroll.

Dormition of the Virgin, The picture number 1