This is the original image or the Holy Mother of Vladimir or Vladimirskaya Virgin Mary icon. The image of the icon is made using a high quality polygraphic machine, pasted on a wooden base. The icons are produced at a Monastery by an official icon maker of the Russian Orthodox Church in the village of Sofrino, Russia. Icon framed in wood. Consecrated.

Size:  height -4 3/4”

           width – 3 3/4”

Note: any glare on pictures is a reflection of light from the plastic wrapping.

The Holy Mother of Vladimir is a medieval Byzantine icon of the Virgin and Child and an early example of the iconography of the Eleusa type. It is one of the most culturally significant and celebrated pieces of art in Russian history.

The icon was painted in Constantinople by an unknown 12th-century artist. It was sent to Kyiv as a gift before being transferred to the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir. It is traditionally said that the icon did not leave the city until 1395 when it was brought to Moscow to protect the city from Mongol invaders, although the historical accuracy of this claim is uncertain. By at least the sixteenth century, it was in the Dormition Cathedral in Moscow. It was moved to the State Tretyakov Gallery after the Russian Revolution. In the 1990s, it was relocated to the Church of St. Nicholas in Tolmachi, where it remains today.