Icon The Assumption of the Virgin Mary

Icon The Assumption of the Virgin Mary

Silkscreen image of excellent quality with ”vivid” colors and gold background 22K. The picture comes with a hard cardboard box.

Our Lady, the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, as a human being, left this world. The faithful Orthodox Christians celebrate this event of her death with particular splendour; but we do not call it “death”, but “dying”. So, on August 15 we celebrate the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. And not only that; as we also hear in the synaxis of the orthodoxy of this day, we honor her metastasis.

The holy icon of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary is multi-faceted. But two faces stand out in the whole performance: Christ and the Virgin Mary.

Our Christ with His sovereign stature holding the soul of His Virgin Mother, an infant in the flesh, and the lean skeleton of the Virgin Mary.

“The icon is dominated by the deathbed, adorned with a richly decorated bed, where the Virgin Mary rests with her arms crossed.

In front of it, attached to a simple candlestick, he burns a thick candle. Behind the deathbed and right in the middle stands Christ with the body in a strange turn to the right, towards the head of His Mother.

In His arms stretched out in the same direction, He holds her soul, which is in the form of a baby with its arms crossed. He’s surrounded by glory.

Inside it is painted at the top a six-winged one and in monochrome four angels who surround Christ with gestures and expressions of sorrow on their faces…

Directly above Christ at the top of the arc of the icon, the gates of heaven have opened and two angels, again in monochrome, are seen bending down with covered hands to take her soul in turn.

At the head and feet of the deathbed are gathered the twelve apostles with expressions, postures and gestures that show deep sorrow.

Peter burns incense on the head of the Virgin Mary, and the Apostle Paul and John the Theologian bow at her feet and embrace her.

Further back are three prelates with open books and on the left, in the background, three women are mourning.

The composition is closed in the background, behind the groups of students, by two conventional ancient buildings. Among them is the inscription “THE SOCIETY OF TH(EO)TOKUS”.

The four (the three pictured) Hierarchs who attended the Assumption were James the Adelphotheos, Jerome, Dionysius the Areopagite and Timothy. Jerome is not depicted.

In some icons we see John Damascene on the right edge of the house, carrying a paper (papyrus) with the following words: ‘Worthy as an animated man in heaven, you have received the heavenly tents and have stood by…’ And on the left St. Cosmas the poet holding another paper that reads: “Seeing a mortal woman, but seeing the mother of God and the mother of the gods, we pray…”

Sadness is visible in all the faces, but mixed with sweet hope. It is the “joyful mourning”, the “joyful mourning”, a characteristic of the faithful who live in anticipation of the resurrection.

We see this also in the troparia of the feast, which sometimes emphasize the terror and awe of the Apostles, whom they present in tears, and sometimes emphasize their joy, which they express in psalms and hymns.

In some images there are clouds in the sky, carrying the apostles to Jerusalem.

In many icons of the Assumption, the episode of the angel cutting the hands of Jephaniah with his sword is painted. (This is the Jew who attempted to throw the relic of the Virgin Mary on the ground).