Two Relief Icons with Mary as Intercessor and Archangel Michael

On the left icon Mary raises her hands in prayer in the manner of the Blachernitissa. The term refers to a famous icon of the Virgin in Constantinople’s Church of Our Lady of Blachernae. The Mother of God stands on a bema (pedestal) and is clad in a long, belted, long-sleeved robe and the maphorion (shawl), which covers her head, shoulders and chest and hangs down behind her arms in broad zigzag folds. The shawl spread out around her symbolizes Mary’s protective role. Her head is surrounded by a large nimbus. The abbreviation of her name Meter Theou (Mother of God) has been carved in Greek letters raised from the relief ground on both sides of her head. The archangel Michael appears on the accompanying relief icon. The outline of his body, like that of Mary’s, breaks through the bounds of the panel’s small format, crossing over the frame in several places. Michael also stands on a bema with a hollowed out, openwork arcade. He is clad in imperial vestments consisting of a long underrobe, the hem of which is just visible, over which he wears the skaramangion. This has wide sleeves, medallion-shaped insignia of rank on the shoulders and beaded trim along the neck opening, the hem and the key-shaped side slits. Over the skaramangion a magnificent loros is draped over his shoulder, hips and back. The loros is made of heavy brocaded silk and divided into squares by beaded seams filled with set ‘gemstones’. Pear-shaped tassels hang from its edges. Michael wears beaded shoes. In his hands as well the archangel carries imperial insignia: in his right hand a sceptre and in his left an orb with waves and a cross – the symbols of Christ as ruler over the entire cosmos. A contoured nimbus frames his head and his hair is held back by a diadem with a gem at his forehead. The Greek epithet “The Archistratege Michael” has been carved on the moulding of the upper frame, identifying the archangel as leader of the heavenly hosts. Both relief icons possibly come from the church of the Peribleptos Monastery of Sulu Manastır, renovated under Michael VIII Palaiologos (r. 1258–1282), and were attached to the front of the pillars on each side of the bema (altar area).