Eleusa icon
{{Short description|Icon type with the Child pressing cheek of Mary}}
{{Redirect|Eleousa||Eleousa (disambiguation)}}
File:MCB-mosaicob.jpg Eleusa mosaic, Athens]]
The Eleusa (or Eleousa; {{langx|el|Ἐλεούσα}} – tenderness or showing mercy) is a type of depiction of the Virgin Mary in icons in which the Christ Child is nestled against her cheek.The icon handbook: a guide to understanding icons and the liturgy by David Coomler 1995 {{ISBN|0-87243-210-6}} page 203 In the Western Church the type is often known as the Virgin of Tenderness.
Depictions
Such icons have been venerated in the Eastern Church for centuries.The Meaning of Icons, by Vladimir Lossky with Léonid Ouspensky, SVS Press, 1999. {{ISBN|0-913836-99-0}} page 85 Similar types of depiction are also found in Madonna paintings in the Western Church where they are called the Madonna Eleusa,The era of Michelangelo: masterpieces from the Albertina by Achim Gnann 2004 {{ISBN|88-370-2755-9}} page 54 or the Virgin of Tenderness. By the 19th century examples such as the Lady of Refuge type (e.g. the Refugium Peccatorum Madonna by Luigi Crosio) were widespread and they were also used in retablos in Mexican art.Art and faith in Mexico: the nineteenth-century retablo tradition by Charles Muir Lovell. {{ISBN|0-8263-2324-3}}. pp. 93–94.
In Eastern Orthodoxy the term Panagia Eleousa is often used. The Theotokos of Vladimir and Theotokos of Pochayiv are well-known examples of this type of icon. Eleusa is also used as epithet for describing and praising the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) in the Eastern Orthodox tradition.
While the Eastern Church does not generally create three-dimensional religious art, Eleusa-style reliefs and sculptures, as well as icons, have also been used in the Western Church.
The Pelagonitissa is a variant in which the infant Jesus makes an abrupt movement.{{cite book|last=Tradigo|first=Alfredo|title=Icons And Saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church|year=2004|publisher=Getty Publications|page=180|isbn=9780892368457|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uODOkMgUZKYC&pg=PA180}}
Gallery
=Eastern icons=
File:Vladimirskaya.jpg|Vladimirskaya
File:Odigitriya Smolenskaya Dionisiy.jpg|Smolenskaya
File:Feodorovskaya ikona so skazaniem.jpg|Fyodorovskaya
File:Theotokos of Tolga (fragment).jpg|Tolgskaya
File:Feofan Donskaja.jpg|Donskaya
=Western icons=
File:The Cambrai Madonna.jpg|Cambrai Madonna, Italo-Byzantine, c. 1340, Cambrai Cathedral
File:Angelos Akotantos - Icon of the Mother of God and Infant Christ (Virgin Eleousa) - 2010.154 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif|The Virgin Eleousa, Crete, c. 1425, Cleveland Museum of Art
File:Tempi Madonna by Raffaello Sanzio - Alte Pinakothek - Munich - Germany 2017.jpg|Tempi Madonna, Raphael, 1508, Alte Pinakothek
File:Della-Robbia-Sevilla1.jpg|"Eleusa style" Relief by Andrea della Robbia in Seville
File:Wga Pompeo Batoni Madonna and Child.jpg|Pompeo Batoni, c. 1742
See also
Sources
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Commons category|Eleusa}}
- [http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/58371/rec/3 Byzantium: faith and power (1261–1557)], an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Eleusa icons
{{Madonna styles|state=expanded}}
{{Virgin Mary}}
Category:Eastern Orthodox icons of the Virgin Mary