Icon of the Virgin and Child, Hodegetria variant

Icon of the Virgin and Child, Hodegetria variant

Byzantine or Crusader

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This intimate variant of the Byzantine Virgin Hodegetria (She who shows the Way) and the Virgin Eleousa (Virgin of Tenderness) icon types embodies the cross-cultural currents of the thirteenth century when Crusader artists coming East from Italy, France, England, and elsewhere in Europe met artists of the Byzantine tradition of the Orthodox Church. The exquisite faces of the Virgin and Child are typical of Byzantine icons in style. The Virgin’s pensive gaze recognizes the future suffering of her son as in Hodegetria icons. Christ’s upturned face would be nestled against the Virgin’s neck in an Eleousa icon in a gesture of tenderness. By distancing the Child, the artist has created a new variant of the Hodegetria type where the Virgin becomes a nurturing mother as she points to her infant son as the path to salvation. The Child’s hand on his shoulder may refer to where the cross would later rest as he carried it to his Crucifixion.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Icon of the Virgin and Child, Hodegetria variantIcon of the Virgin and Child, Hodegetria variantIcon of the Virgin and Child, Hodegetria variantIcon of the Virgin and Child, Hodegetria variantIcon of the Virgin and Child, Hodegetria variant

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.