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An image of the Mother of God represented in center belongs to the iconographic type known since the 17th century as Our Lady of Shuya. Its iconographic features manifest themselves chiefly in the Child’s pose: his raised right hand with a scroll rests on the right bent bare leg. The Mother of God supports the Child’s left leg. The association with the death and resurrection of Christ is emphasized by a red background and an inscription above the Child’s figure “Ц(а)р(ь) Сла (вы) // И (ису)с Х (ристо)с Ни // кa”. The Theotokos with the Child is surrounded by the half-figures of the saints symbolizing the Church and venerated as the protectors of praying people. In the central part of the icon is an image of John the Baptist holding a scroll with an inscription “Се агне //цъ Б (о)ж//ии взе” (John, I, 29). To his left is the figure of Elijah the Prophet with a scroll with an inscription “Г(оспо)дь рече // ко Илье // что ты здесе // се” (3 Kings, XIX, 9, 13) – the first words of the Lord’s speech to Elijah on Mount Sinai. To the left is the Archangel Michael. Symmetrically to the figures of Michael and Elijah are the images of Peter and Paul. Peter is holding the key from the gates of paradise and a scroll with an inscription. On the border sides are the figures of Nicholas of the Wonderworker, Archdeacon Stephan, the martyrs Paraskeva Pyatnitsa and Barbara. -
The triptych belongs to the folding boxes type with a keel-shaped finial. In accordance with tradition, the upper parts of the leaves represent the Annunciation scene; under them are the festival scenes such as the Nativity of the Mother of God, the Entry into the Temple, the Nativity of Christ, the Meeting of Our Lord, the Epiphany, the Resurrection of Lazar, the Entry into Jerusalem, the Transfiguration (left), the Crucifixion, the Descent from the Cross, the Resurrection – the Descent to Hell, the Myrrh-Bearing Women at the Holy Sepulcher, the Confession of Saint Thomas, the Ascension, the Holy Trinity, the Dormition of the Mother of God (right). The finial of the upper part shows the rare composition of Agnus Dei symbolically depicting the redemptive sacrifice of Christ for the sins of the whole world. It also shows the Infant Christ lying on the discos and blessed with rhipidia that the attending angels are holding in hands. Inside the box is an icon with a built-in 16th century bony medallion icon depicting the Mother of God Hodegetria, set in a filigree frame. Next to it are the angels, surrounded by eight icons of the Mother of God in different iconographic variants. The central icon imitates the engraving of eight images of the Theotokos – one of the leaves created by the Moscow engraver Gregory Tepchegorsky who worked in 1702-1718 and was included in different collections of the first third of the 18th century. Not only did Tepchegorsky use the images of famous Russian icons, but he also authored a number of icons, such as the Tervansky icon, which in Russia was later associated with the Terebinsky pustyn (hermitage) in the Tverskoi region. -
A waist-length depiction of the Mother of God with the Divine Child in the arms. He sits sidewise towards the praying people putting his right feet on his right leg and raising a scroll almost to the face of the Mother of God.