Theotokos of Vladimir

On the dark red maphorion draped over the Virgin's head in the Theotokos of Vladimir, four gold stars are visible. Byzantine icon convention gives the Virgin exactly three stars: one on the head, one on each shoulder. The three stars symbolise her perpetual virginity: before, during, and after the birth of Christ. This icon has four. One on the head, and three across the breast. It is an iconographic anomaly no other tenderness (Eleusa) icon shares. The icon was painted in Constantinople around 1130 and travelled to Kyiv, then Vladimir, then Moscow over three centuries. Now at Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow @tretyakov_gallery