Leaf from a folding icon with the icon "Mother of God Hodegetria" (fragment)

The left leaf of a two-leaf folding icon (a "dvoika"). Rectangular in form, close to square. At the top is a square suspension loop with a hole for hanging. On the edges of the leaf are an elongated hinge for attachment and a fragment of a clasp. The leaf is covered in white and blue enamel. The icon has a shallow recessed "ark." At the top center of the composition, within a rectangular frame, is a half-length image of the Virgin Mary with the Infant Christ on her left arm, Christ blessing with his right hand. To the right and left of the frame are the inscriptions "MR ΘU" (Mary, Mother of God) and "IC XC" (Jesus Christ); below them, the names of saints: "ILIIA" (Elijah), "PFEO" (Venerable Theodore). The saints are shown half-length in the lower corners of the icon, their figures turned halfway toward the center, their hands stretched toward the Mother of God. The background bears images of the sun, the moon, and an eight-petaled flower. On the reverse of the leaf is a symbolic depiction of Golgotha in the form of an eight-pointed cross with the instruments of the Passion.

The icon was donated to the museum by Oleh Mykhailovych Zhyrnyi, a resident of the village of Sobych, Sumy region, in 1989.