6th or early 7th c. CE
Virgin (Theotokos) and Child between Saints Theodore and George
Culture: Byzantine
Medium: Encaustic on wood
Size: 2'3"x1'7"
Style: Byzantine
Icon, Biblical, religion, family, ideal, woman, cross-cultural. This work can be connected to Akhenaton, Nefertiti, and Three Daughters based on religion and family. Both works are religiously significant: Virgin and Child as it depicts important Christian figures, and Akhenation, Nefertiti, and Three Daughters depict the sun god Aton. Along with that, both show family, the Byzantine work showing Jesus and his mother Mary, and the Egyptian work showing a pharaoh, his wife, and daughters. Additionally, both works are formally flat, and there lacks a sense of space.
Icon, encaustic, frontal, formal, flat, floating, naturalism. This work is an icon, a devotional panel depicting a sacred image (in this case it’s the Virgin Mary alongside saints). The work is flat, as there is no interest in anatomy or foreshortening, and there lacks a sense of space. Its medium is encaustic, which is pigment mixed on wax.
This work was discovered in Egypt inside a monastery, near a site where it is speculated that God appeared to Moses. Likely, since this work was found in a spiritually charged space, it was made to facilitate prayer and personal devotion, which is why the figures are depicted so holy and formal. It’s also the reason why the work depicts important Christian figures, like the baby Jesus and Mary. The artist was also likely inspired by the direct gaze art style of Roman Egyptian portraiture.
This work is similar to Fragment of a Floor Mosaic with a Personification of Ktisis, made in 500-550 CE. Both works are similar in that they include a frontal figure with a forward gaze, the figures are flattened with barely any sense of three dimensionality, and the figures are formal (solemn and rigid).