The Mother of God of Hodigitria

Mother of God Hodegetria of Smolensk icon, Russia 19th-20th c. The displayed household use icon decorated with a gilded covering of brass plate is one of the variants of the Mother of God Hodegetria - the Guide, known as the Smolensk Hodegetria, see S.12677MŁ. The oldest, not preserved Smolensk depiction in Rus is hypothesised to have been a copy of the icon from the temple in Blachernae, Constantinople. It is believed to have come to Rus in 1046, along with the parental blessing of Emperor Constantine XI Monomachos, who married his daughter to the son of Yaroslav the Wise - Vsevolod, Prince of Pereyaslav, Chernigov, and Kiev. The icon became a sacred object for the Rus Rurik dynasty, evidence of their close ties with Byzantium. The son of Vsevolod - the Grand Prince of Kiev Vladimir II Monomakh - transferred the painting from Chernigov to Smolensk in 1095, to the Dormition Cathedral he funded in 1101. According to an old account, the Smolensk Mother of God warned the inhabitants of the city and saved them from the armies of Batu Khan. Batu Khan, having left for Rus in 1236, suddenly turned from Novogrod and Smolensk to Kiev, capturing the capital of Rus in 1240. At the end of the 14th c., the Principality of Smolensk was subordinated to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1398, Prince Vytautas, having married off his daughter Sophia to the Moscow Prince Vasily, the son of Dmitry Donskoy, gifted her the Hodegetria of Smolensk icon. The painting was taken to Moscow and placed in the Cathedral of the Annunciation in the Kremlin, on the right side of the tsar's doors. There are several versions of the story about how the icon was acquired for Moscow. One of them says that the painting was looted by the Tatars and gifted to the Moscow princes; another one claims that the last Smolensk prince, running away from Vytautas in 1404 took the icon to Moscow. The Smolensk icon stayed in the Kremlin until 1456, which is described under S.12785MŁ. Teresa Bagińska-Żurawska https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9243-3967