Quadripartite icon with Mandylion

This icon provides four images of the Mother of God surrounding the Mandylion with ranks of saints at left and right. In the upper left corner is a depiction of the Mother of God, The Life-Giving Spring (or Well of Living Water). In the upper right quadrant is a scene reproducing an icon of the Mother of God of Unexpected Joy. It alludes to the story of a man who was praying to the icon as he contemplated committing a misdeed. Noticing wounds on the Mother and Child, he asked, “Who has done this?” The Virgin replied, “You and other sinners.” The conversation is reproduced on the icon as coming from the mouths of the man and Virgin. The inscription below the icon, which provides the context, says, “A sinner was in the habit of praying daily to the most Holy Virgin, reciting the words of the archangel.” At lower right and left are two popular Russian icons: the Fiery Mother of God and the Kazan Mother of God. The Mandylion (Not Made by Hands) icon at center reproduces a cloth bearing a miraculous image of Christ’s face. Top to bottom in the left-hand margin are St. Theodore the Righteous, St. Peter the Apostle, St. John the Evangelist and the Archangel Michael. Top to bottom in the right-hand margin are St. Mary of Egypt, St. Eudocia, St. Paraskevi and St. Charalampos.