The Virgin Hodegetria

The Virgin is depicted in the type of the Hodegetria, in identical rendering to icons Cat. nos 126 and 134. Her head is of elongated shape and Christ has a high bare forehead. The facial features are clearly drawn, though in a somewhat weak manner, and the flesh is picked out in dense white highlights that cover the surface of the cheek and model the volumes around the nose. The Virgin’s well-drawn hand with long fingers is run through with parallel undulating white lines.

The icon, which is the outcome of the repetition of the familiar working drawing (anthivolon) of the fifteenth-century Hodegetria, is later in date than the other two icons in the Canellopoulos Museum (Cat. nos 126 and 134), while it is closer to the work of conservative late sixteenth-century painters, such as Emmanuel Lambardos, and can be dated to around 1600.

NANO CHATZIDAKIS