Our Lady of Yakhren

This image dates from a miracle-working icon of the Mother of God kept at the St Cosmas Monastery of the Dormition near Vladimir. According to legend, the icon miraculously appeared to a monk called Cosmas in the River Yakhren in 1482. The icon is based on the Tenderness (Greek: Eleusa) composition, in which the Virgin and Child are represented with their cheeks pressed together. The special features of the Yakhren type are Christ’s pose (crossed legs with the right leg tucked under the left leg), the drawing of the silhouettes and the scroll in Christ’s left hand.