Restoration and attribution of The Virgin of Tenderness (a new acquisition of the Byzantine collection of the Hermitage Museum)

In the history of post-Byzantine icon painting from the second half of the 15th century until the 21st , the period of the mid second half of the 19th century is among those that did not attract much attention of art historians. For fine art connoisseurs, icons of this period were works of practically contemporary painters, and, as a result, the Hermitage Museum, whose icons collection has been formed solely out of acquisitions of private, museum, and state collections, possessed only a few works of Greek and Balkan workshops. During the last decade, the purchase of icons from private persons, this lacuna became filled with interesting works made at Mount Athos, Palestine, the Balkans, and Ionian islands. One of these icons, The Virgin of Tenderness, was acquired in 2013. The icon depicts the waist-high Virgin Mary holding the Child cuddled up with the cheek to the Virgin's face. Two life-size figures of Archangels Michael and Gavriil are placed in the upper corners; they crown the Virgin with one hand and hold the gold medallions with black monograms of Her name in the other, "МР ?Y". White letters "M" and "G" are visible over the gold halos of archangels. On the background, to the right from the figure of the Child, there are white monograms "IC XC".