Description in Icons, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2004, cat. no. 9:
The Mother of God, Fountain of Life
Late 17th-early 18th century, Northern Greece
NMI 139

Wood: Linden (Tilia sp.), egg tempera
on canvas. Panel made of single board
with two superimposed splines; back
painted black.

PROVENANCE: Olof Aschberg;
Gift of O.Aschberg 1933
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Kjellin 1933, no 139;
Kjellin 1956, p 248
CONSERVATION: Restored prior to entering
NM: retouches; NM 1970: crack through
panel, with paint losses in lower part, re -
pair ed, cleaning, retouching, varnishing.
Losses of paint layer and ground along borders;
panel slightly worm-eaten
This picture is divided into two separate
and stylistically different parts.
One of them is the central scene with
the Mother of God of the Life-Giving
Source, and the other with the surrounding
twelve figures. There is a
precursor of the former, represented by
a late 16th century icon in Musée d’Art
et d’Histoire, Geneva.1With its
Renaissance connection, this is reminiscent
of the style of Michael Damaskinos
but bears the signature of Niko-
laos Batzas. It includes the woman carrying
a child and the two men, respectively
shown to left and right of the
fountain. The Geneva icon represents
only the central scene and thus lacks
the surrounding figures. These, all of
them with books or scrolls, represent
twelve of the apostles. Beginning top
left, they are: John, with an indistinct
inscription, Peter, with a quotation
from Matt. XVI:18, Paul, with a quotation
from Romans I:1, Matthew, from
Matt. IV:14, Mark, from Mark I:1–2;
Luke, from Luke XVI:15, Andrew, un -
identified and Silas?.The three remain -
ing apostles are also hard to identify,
due mainly to the disappearance of
their inscriptions. The text on the in -
scription rolls carried by the two angels
comes from hymns sung on the festival
day of this motif, which falls on the
Friday after Easter.
The relief patterns of the halos are
typical of northern Greece.2
1 Lazovic’ 1985, no 9.
2 Cf. Chatzidakis 1985, no 153 and Baltoyanni
1986, no 40.
[slut]