Hand painted with egg tempera on leaf of gold.
Gesso over wood panel.

Size 10 1/2 by 12"

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The Theotokos of Bogolyubovo, or Bogolubovo Icon, is a Theotokos Agiosoritissa, a type of Marian icon, which is venerated and perceived as wonderworking by the Russian Orthodox Church. The icon was painted in 1157 at the request of Grand Prince Andrew Bogolubsky, in commemoration of an appearance to him by the Mother of God.

According to Orthodox tradition, when the prince was moving from Vyshgorod to the Suzdal Principality in 1155, he took the Wonderworking Icon of the Theotokos from the Mezhyhirskyi Monastery in Vyshgorod with him, and served molebens in front of it every day. About 11 versts (7.26 miles) from the city of Vladimir, as they approached the shore of the Klyazma River, the horses carrying the icon suddenly stopped and would not move forward. After prayer, the prince went to his tent and there the Theotokos appeared to him in a dream-like vision holding a scroll in her right hand, and commanded him to place her icon in the city of Vladimir and to build a temple (church) and monastery on the place of the vision. (Ever since this time, that icon has been known as Our Lady of Vladimir.) Great Prince Andrew did as he was told, and also commissioned the Bogolubsky Icon of the Theotokos.
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