Icon of the Virgin and Child, Hodegetria variant

Byzantine or Crusader Byzantine or Crusader

Not on view


This intimate version of the Virgin Hodegetria (She Who Shows the Way) epitomizes the transcultural dialogue that peaked at the Holy Monastery of Catherine at Sinai and elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean during the thirteenth century. Several works by the unknown artist of this icon survive at Sinai. The face and hands of the Virgin and Child are Byzantine in style, while their experimental pose suggests that the artist might have been from the West. Icons produced across the Mediterranean, not only in Africa, juxtapose local conventions with forms associated with Byzantine art.

Icon of the Virgin and Child, Hodegetria variant, Byzantine or Crusader (13th century), Tempera on wood, Byzantine or Crusader

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Icon of the Virgin and Child, Hodegetria variant, Byzantine or Crusader (13th century), Tempera on wood, Byzantine or Crusader
Icon of the Virgin and Child, Hodegetria variant, Byzantine or Crusader (13th century), Tempera on wood, Byzantine or Crusader

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