Portable Icon with the Virgin Eleousa

Byzantine

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 303

Images of the Virgin Eleousa, the Virgin of Compassion, developed in the later Byzantine centuries and profoundly influenced the art of the Latin West. Here, the intimate poses of the heads and hands display the warm emotional attachment of the Virgin and Child. The fifteenth-century Latin inscription on the reverse identifies the icon as the one that converted the fourth-century Saint Catherine of Alexandria to Christianity.

Portable Icon with the Virgin Eleousa, Miniature mosaic set in wax on wood panel, with gold, multicolored stones, and gilded copper, Byzantine

Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Open Access

As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.

API

Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.

Post Conservation