Virgin (Theotokos) and Child between Saints Theodore and George.

Virgin (Theotokos) and Child between Saints Theodore and George. Early Byzantine Europe. Sixth or early seventh century C.E. Encaustic on wood.

• BYZANTINE ICONS ARE HEIRS TO THE ROMAN TRADITION OF PORTRAIT PAINTING ON SMALL WOOD PANELS; BROKE FROM CLASSICAL MODELS
• VERY FEW ICONS SURVIVE
• ENCAUSTIC ON WOOD, PANEL PAINTING THAT DATES TO THE ROMAN EMPIRE
• THE TWO GUARDIAN SAINTS INTERCEDE WITH THE VIRGIN
• HAND OF GOD APPEARS FROM A LIGHT SHAFT
• THE FOREGROUND FIGRUES ARE STRICTLY FRONTAL AND HAVE A SOLEMN DEMEANOR
• The icon shows the Virgin and Child flanked by two soldier saints, St. Theodore to the left and St. George at the right. Above these are two angels who gaze upward to the hand of God, from which light emanates, falling on the Virgin.
• The painter selectively used the classicizing style inherited from Rome.
• The child sits on her ample lap as the mother supports him with both hands. We see the left knee of the Virgin beneath convincing drapery whose folds fall between her legs.
•  Theodore and George stand erect, feet on the ground, and gaze directly at the viewer with large, passive eyes. 
• The Virgin averts her gaze and does not make eye contact with the viewer. The ethereal angels concentrate on the hand above. The light tones of the angels and especially the slightly transparent rendering of their halos give the two an otherworldly appearance.
• This supremely composed picture gives us an unmistakable sense of visual movement inward and upward, from the saints to the Virgin and from the Virgin upward past the angels to the hand of God.
• God transcend our space. As the eye moves upward we pass through zones: the saints, standing on ground and therefore closest to us, and then upward and more ethereal until we reach the holiest zone, that of the hand of God. These zones of holiness suggest a cosmos of the world, earth and real people, through the Virgin, heavenly angels, and finally the hand of God.