ICON ‘SAINTS EUPHROSYNUS AND SERAPION OF PSKOV WITH THE IMAGE OF THE MOTHER OF GOD TSARGRADSKAYA’ Mstera, late 19th century

wood, levkas, gold leaf, tempera 44 x 37.5 cm Condition: good condition, without restorations A detailed description of the icon is provided by the 19th-century writer Archimandrite Platon: the icon depicts Saint Euphrosynus (Eleazar), founder of the Spaso-Eleazarovsky Monastery, and his closest disciple, Saint Serapion, with the Tsargrad icon. The icon of the Mother of God Tsargradskaya was presented as a gift to the monastery that Euphrosyne had newly established, by Patriarch Gennadius II of Constantinople (Tsargrad) in the mid-15th century. Since then, the icon has become famous for its many miraculous signs and healings. The present icon, of great artistic value and rarity, is of considerable interest to collectors.