Our Lady of Vladimir: history, veneration, modernity

Created in the first third of the 12th century, Our Lady of Vladimir is one of the most famous images of the Virgin in Russian and Byzantine art. Today we would like to talk about the history of the image and how the legendary icon is venerated and preserved today.

Our Lady of Vladimir: history, veneration, modernity

Our Lady of Vladimir is one of the most famous images of the Virgin in both Byzantine and Russian history of art. Painted in the first third of the 12th century in Constantinople, it was almost immediately brought to Kyiv, where it was placed in the temple of the Vyshgorod monastery. That is why in some cases this icon can be found under the name Our Lady of Vyshgorod. Apparently, miracles from the icon began to happen almost immediately. However, especially careful recording was started in 1155, when Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky, who would be later canonized in the Russian Orthodox Church, took the icon from Kyev where his father Yuri Dolgoruky ruled during that time. That is how the icon ended up in the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir, where it was revered as the main shrine of the Vladimir-Suzdal lands.

However, Our Lady of Vladimir is very important for the Moscow context and Moscow history. Thus, one of the most famous miracles from this icon is considered to be the salvation of Moscow from the troops of Tamerlane in 1395. In fear of this threat, Prince Vasily Dmitrievich sent ambassadors for the miraculous icon to Vladimir. According to Skazanie of Our Lady of Vladimir, the main historical source on the matter, after the religious procession and the meeting of the icon in Moscow, Tamerlane ordered his troops to retreat. After this miraculous salvation, the icon was brought to Moscow many times, until it was finally installed in the Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin, in a place of honor next to the royal doors of the iconostasis.

During its long life, Our Lady of Vladimir participated in a number of dramatic events, such as, for example, the destruction of the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir by Batu Khan, when, apparently, its precious riza (revetment) was torn off. Such events, as well as significant miracles that occurred from the icon, led to the incredible complexity of the multi-layered painting surface: it was repeatedly renewed, repainted, given new rizas as a sign of gratitude, and so on.

Relatively little of the icon surface we see nowadays can be attributed to the 12th-century layer — only the faces and the left hand of the Child. The largest part of the pictorial surface is associated with those same renovations, mainly of the 16th century. In order to preserve such a complex conglomerate of materials from different times with different chemical and physical properties, a special climatic capsule was created for the icon of Our Lady of Vladimir, in which it is housed in the Church-Museum of St. Nicholas in Tolmachi at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Thus, both museum staff and Christians who want to venerate the shrine, have unlimited access to the icon.