Russian school, 19th century. "Nativity of the Virgin. Tempera on panel. Measurements: 13.5 x 11 cm. This icon represents the first bath of the Virgin Mary, newly born, by two servant girls around a bathtub. The bath scene is in the foreground and behind it appears Saint Anne, patron saint of pregnant women, still in the bed where she has given birth, gazing lovingly at the scene. On the right-hand side of the composition we see Saint Joachim, a beardless man, attentive to what is happening around him. Behind her are two more servant girls, offering her food to help her regain her strength after childbirth. This is a Russian icon of Western conception, with a profoundly constructed space and a narrative theme far removed from the hieratic images of deep symbolic content typical of the Orthodox icon. The representation of the Nativity of the Virgin in Russian iconography dates back to the 10th and 11th centuries, and became particularly important after the triumph of Orthodoxy at the Council of Nicaea II. The Nativity of Mary is part of the cycle of the Life of the Virgin, episodes narrated in some of the Gospels but mostly in apocryphal texts collected in James of Voragine's "The Golden Legend". Anne and Joachim, Mary's parents, had been married for many years without conceiving children. In order for her conception to be immaculate, that is, without the lust of original sin, it took place when the spouses embraced at the Golden Gate of Jerusalem. According to the texts, this is how Saint Anne became pregnant and nine months later gave birth to the Virgin Mary.