- Virgin Mary – Portaitissa
- Item ID : 325
- Collection Name : Holy Metropolis of Limnos and Ag. Eustratios
- Dimension : 70Χ53,5Χ5,8
- Description : Virgin Mary - the Portaitissa, is depicted in bust-length, against an orange background. She is holding Christ Child on her left arm while her right hand is raised in front of her chest presenting the Christ Child. Her head is slightly inclined toward the Christ Child. Christ Child is depicted in a three-quarter angle having his head raised towards The Virgin. A rolled scroll is poised upon his knee, while his right hand is raised in a blessing gesture.
He is clad in a deep orange color cloak with no particular details and a dark green tunic. Virgin is clad in a dark-brown maphorion with almost linear pleats and subtle gold striations. Her inner garment is of an olive-green color hemmed with a gold band around her neck. Her head is covered with a sash decorated with humble lineaments.
At the top corners of the icon, two red medallions exist, inscribed with the monogrammatic inscription: MH ΘΥ.
Above the Christ Childs head the inscription: IC XC is readable.
Virgin and Christ Child bear silver halos engraved with a rinceaux which bears alternate motifs of rosettes and tendrils.
Ichnographically the compositional scheme, have direct parallels to the work of the Mount Athos artists closely related to a Macedonian prototype.
The pictorial execution proposes a placement of this icon to the type pertaining to the recovery of the traditional Paleologan School with direct affiliation though to the seventeenth century.