Icon - Black Madonna Icon ‘Unexpected joy’ with the Mother of God image.

Lot 1273
350400
Wood, leucas, gold leaf, tempera. 33 х 27 cm. Size: 33X27 cm. Ural (?), middle of the XIX century. Condition: tintings across the ‘facial’ fragment, clothes and on margins, beetle movement traces on the back side. The iconography has a Western origin. In Russia it starts not earlier than at the end of the XVII century. The legend about the recovery of a young man from carnal passion through this icon was described in the book ‘The Sprikled Fleece’ of St. Demetrius from Rostov. The young man was praying beneath the image of the Virgin Pure and suddenly saw that the image became alive, the ulcers of Christ opened and bleed. Scared he exclaimed, ‘O Lady, who has done this?’ And the Virgin replied: ‘You and other sinners crucify My Son again with your sins’. Only at that moment he realized all the depth of his sinfulness. In tears he was praying the Virgin and the Savior for a long time to pardon him. Finally the unexpected joy of forgiveness and liberation from sins was given to him. Specific manner of painting - quite tough, dryish, darkish faces, applying of powdery gold - make in close to icons of the Ural region.