01 Religious Icon, Central Franconian Master's Saint Margaret of Antioch, with footnotes #46

Central Franconian Master, 1436

Scene from the Life of Saint Margaret of Antioch

Oil on panel

57 x 42 cm

Private collection

Sold for USD 39,000 .- in Nov 2022

St. Margaret of Antioch, also called St. Marina, (flourished 3rd or 4th century, Antioch, Syria), virgin martyr and was one of the most venerated saints during the Middle Ages. Her story, generally regarded to be fictitious, is substantially that of the Eastern St. Marina of Antioch and is related to that of St. Pelagia of Antioch, who is also known as Margaret or Marina.

During the reign (284–305) of the Roman emperor Diocletian, Margaret allegedly refused marriage with the prefect Olybrius at Antioch and was consequently beheaded after undergoing extravagant trials and tortures. Her designation as patron saint of expectant mothers and her emblem, a dragon, are based on one of her trials: Satan, disguised as a dragon, swallowed Margaret; his stomach, however, soon rejecting her, opened, and let her out unharmed. In 1969 Margaret’s feast day, formerly July 20, was eliminated in the revised calendar of the Roman Catholic Church because it is doubtful whether she ever existed. Nevertheless, during the medieval period she ranked among the most famous saints; her voice was among those attested to have been heard by St. Joan of Arc. More on St. Margaret of Antioch

Central Franconian Master is an unknown, highly skilled painter who worked in Franconia, a region in northern Bavaria (Germany) in the first quarter of the sixteenth century. The artist was familiar with the work of his famous contemporaries Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach.

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01 Religious Icon, Theotokos of Vladimir, the holy protectress of Russia, with footnotes #45

Unknown iconographer

Theotokos of Vladimir, c. 1130 in Constantinople

Tempera on panel

104 x 69 cm

Tretyakov Gallery

Theotokos of Vladimir. About 1131 the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople sent the icon as a gift to Grand Duke Yury Dolgorukiy of Kiev. The image was kept in a monastery, until Dolgorukiy's son Andrey Bogolyubskiy brought it to his favourite city, Vladimir, in 1155. Tradition tells that the horses transporting the icon stopped near Vladimir and refused to go further. People interpreted this as a sign that the Theotokos wanted her icon to stay in Vladimir. To house the icon, the great Assumption Cathedral was built there, followed by other churches dedicated to the Virgin throughout Ukraine. However the presence of the icon did not prevent the sack and burning of the city by the Mongols in 1238, when the icon was damaged by fire. It was first restored after this, and again before 1431 and in 1512.

According to the traditional accounts the image was taken from Vladimir to the new capital, Moscow, in 1395 during Tamerlane's invasion. Vasili I of Moscow spent a night crying over the icon, and Tamerlane's armies retreated the same day. The Muscovites refused to return the icon to Vladimir and placed it in the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Moscow Kremlin.

Crediting the icon with saving Moscow in 1395 does not appear in sources until the late 15th century, and the full version of the story until accounts of 1512 and then the 1560s. By the 16th century, the Vladimirskaya was a thing of legend, and associated with the growth of Russian national consciousness based on the Muscovite state. The intercession of the Theotokos through the image was credited also with saving Moscow from Tatar hordes in 1451 and 1480. More on Theotokos of Vladimir

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