Picturing Mary: Day 22

 

Theotokos of Smolensk (c. 1500) “Hodgeteria” type icon.

Icons of Mary classically fall into a number of distinct types. Yesterday we saw a “Virgin of Tenderness”. Today’s is called the “hodgeteria”, from the Greek word meaning “she who points the way. Mary points to Jesus, who sits as if enthroned on her arm.