The Virgin, the Christ-child and the evil eye

The wall painting illustrated in Plate 16 and Fig. 21.1, from the Omorphi Ekklesia, Aigina,1

and dated on epigraphical grounds to 1289,2 might at first glance appear to be a standard Nativity scene typical of late Byzantine ‘provincial’ art. A closer look, however, reveals a number of unusual iconographic features, which suggest that first impressions are wrong, and that it is actually rather an unconventional treatment of the subject.