Travel icon depicting the Virgin of Smolensk, 19th century

Bronze casting and polychrome enamels

Height × width: 11.5 × 9.5 cm Weight: 365.7 g.

An image of Mary, named after the city of Smolensk. Tradition holds that the icon was used to bless the streets of Constantinople by Constantine IX Monomachos on the occasion of the marriage of his daughter Anna to Prince Vsevolod of Yaroslavl, and that it arrived in Russia in the 11th century. Vladimir II Monomakh solemnly donated it to the city of Smolensk in the 12th century, where the image was placed in the Cathedral of the Dormition, but it was later lost during the Second World War.This object also belongs to the group of icons of the Russian Old Believers, mass-produced starting in the 17th century. These artifacts were generally small in size and intended for private devotion. Their portability made them easy to carry and, if necessary, to hide, thus meeting the religious needs of a community that, after the schism known as the Raskol, experienced periods of persecution by the official Russian Orthodox Church.