Ukrainian Icon Mother of God Odighitria Ukraine, 17th century Tempera on panel 41 x 30 cm The characteristic feature of this icon, depicting the Mother of God Odighitria, is certainly the background and the haloes worked in bas-relief with idealized plant motifs, an element that brings us back to some examples of Ukrainian icon painting ("Virgin of Tenderness", second half of the sixteenth century from Lyskovate, Lemkivščyna), where we find, precisely, a great decorative research of the backgrounds treated both with a burin and carved and, later, gilded or silvered. Another characterizing theme is the happy union of a profoundly Byzantine matrix, which is concentrated in the wrapping of the mantles and in the ability of the artists to give the sacred images an expressiveness closer to the popular soul. The Saint George and the monk saint in the lower part of the panel, separated by a splendid bas-relief capital, are extremely refined. Ukraine icon Mother of God Odighitria Ukraine, 17th century Tempera on panel 41 x 30 cm