ABSTRACT
An important icon of the Virgin with the Christ-child on her right arm (dimensions: 85 × 63 × 3 cm) has been recently acquired by the Benaki Museum (Plate 23, Figs 27.1-27.2).1 The main subject is surrounded on three sides by a wide raised border, decorated along the top with the busts of five figures forming the Deesis, and on the two vertical sides with four pairs of saints in bust (Figs 27.2-27.8). The icon was in a poor state of preservation and the original surface was overpainted during the nineteenth century (Fig. 27.1).2 Following conservation in the laboratories of the Benaki Museum, the original representations (Fig. 27.2) now appear against a uniform dark blue ground which covers the entire surface of the panel, even the border and the haloes, with no surviving inscriptions and no use of gold.3 The most notable technical feature of the icon is the carving in plain relief of the haloes of the main figures. Although the painted surface has suffered considerable damage, the colours which survive reflect a high level of mastery, most apparent in the modelling of the small-scale figures on the border, where the underlying freehand preliminary design and incisions are visible (Figs 27.6-27.7).4
