Eleusa

Eleusa (Greek: merciful) is an iconographic type that represents the Mother of God with the Child in a way that emphasises their tender bond by tilting their faces towards each other and the touching of their cheeks. The Lublin icon freely refers to one of the variants of Eleusa – the so-called Roman Mary. In this version, Jesus holds his left hand in Mary’s hand, and in his right, rested on his lap, he is holding a scroll; his right foot is characteristically bent, so that its sole is visible. In mid-seventeenth century this representation became very popular throughout Polish territories. There are images that faithfully reproduce this pattern, and others, with some modifications involving, among others, the position of the right hand of the Child (for example, in the icon from Tomaszów Lubelski, Jesus embraces the neck of the Mother). An example of a modified pattern that inspired subsequent copies is a woodcut from the beginning of the 18th century in the Irmologion (a book containing liturgical songs) attributed to Nikodem Zubrzycki and published in Lviv. In the image, the Child raises his right hand in a gesture of blessing. This is the representation of the Lublin Eleusa icon. The image from the Lublin Museum draws attention due also to the frontal position of Mary, who directs her pensive gaze straight ahead, and the rather artificial, stiff position of her hand – the Mother does not squeeze the Child’s hand naturally. Such a pose suggests a combination of the theological message of two Marian representations, Hodegetria and Eleusa – Marys gesture and gaze show her as Hodegetria (Greek: showing the way – Christ), while the touching of the cheeks and the touch of the hands of the Mother and the Son refer to the Eleusa type, thus pointing to the mystery of Jesus’ incarnation and the divine motherhood of Mary.