Virgin Russian School, 18th century. The Virgin of the Milk. Tempera, gold leaf on panel. Measurements: 22 x 17,5 cm. Images of the Virgin Mary suckling the Child Jesus have been known in Eastern Christian art since antiquity. This theme became especially popular in post-Byzantine Italo-Greek painting. This typology has been known in Russia since 1392, and was a priori called the Mother of God of Bari, after the Italian city of Bari, from where the original icon was brought to the Cathedral of the Annunciation in the Moscow Kremlin. This icon was eventually lost, but its very few later versions have survived, which form the basis of this typology of the Mother of God, to which the lot of interest belongs. This icon is executed according to the traditional canon. The seated Virgin is depicted half-length, with her face and torso rotated by three-quarters. The Christ Child rests in his mother's arms, holding her breast, one of the two versions of the representation of the Christ Child, who may also appear to be suckled by the Virgin. The inscriptions on the icon clearly indicate the subject of the image.