Question about Icons

[Rawb]

I’m just saying the icon is commonly depicted without Christ, whether the Theotokos is completely alone or depicting the full scene. I wasn’t attempting to use such icons as evidence for an argument or anything like that. And interestingly a quick Google search shows some Christ-less Pokrov icons from at least as early as the 15th century.

I mentioned it occasionally happened, but notice that it’s rare enough that we’re able to pick out exceptions. We say things like “Well the Protection Icon has only the Theotokos, and the Pokrov Icon.” If this was reversed and we were trying to show that it’s an exception to have her with Christ we couldn’t do that, because we’d have to be saying “Well the Tenderness Icon has Christ, and so does the Theotokos of the Sign, and so does Our Lady of Częstochowa, oh and so does…” on and on and on. Get what I mean?

The Protection Icon is also, from what I remember, a depiction of a historical event, and so the ‘rules’ are slightly different.

My point though was that if we see a piece of naturalistic religious art from the West featuring just the Theotokos, it’s far more likely to be just a piece of art than an attempt at painting an Icon.

 

[dvdjs]

My point though was that if we see a piece of naturalistic religious art from the West featuring just the Theotokos, it’s far more likely to be just a piece of art than an attempt at painting an Icon.

In fact if you saw a naturalistic religious art from the West featuring the Theotokos and the Christ child - Madonna and child being a very common subject in the West - it’s far more likely to be religious art than an attempt at painting an Icon.

As to the actual history of iconography, here is a useful link:
orthodoxworld.ru/en/icona/9/
Of the five genre of icons of the Theotokos, note the Intercessor

1. “Intercessor” (“Agiosortissa”) The icons of this type show the Theotokos in her full height, without the Child, turned to the right, sometimes holding a scroll.

The Umilenie is also very popular owing to its favor by St. Seraphim
holytrinityorthodox.com/calendar/los/July/19-08.htm

Orthowiki attributes three types of icon of the Theotokos as having originated with St Luke. One of those three is a depiction of the Theotokos alone.

The depiction of the Theotokos alone does not “disqualify” a work from being an icon.

 

[EvangelCatholic]

It is wonderful how the Western Church are placing icons around altars and elsewhere in a church building. This was rare many years ago.