The Nativity of the Virgin

Type: Icon

Period: From the beginning of the 19 century to the end of the 19 century

Author: Unknown

School: Bansko Iconographic School

Dimmensions (cm): 32 / 22.5 / 2

Location

Country: Bulgaria

Province: Blagoevgrad

Town: Bansko

Church: St. Trinity

Source

Country: Bulgaria

Province: Blagoevgrad

Town: Bansko

Church: St. Trinity

Description

A traditional iconographic composition of this theme. Saint Anne is lying on a bed, surrounded by maidservants, serving her food and drinks. Down below, on the left-hand side of the pictorial field, is another maidservant, who is spinning, squatting at the cradle of the newly-born. Peeping out from behind a pleated and decorated canopy is the righteous Joachim with eyes and arms thrown up in a thanksgiving gesture. The entire scene is set against the background of a rich interior, typical of the house of the 19th-century Revival Period in Bulgaria.

Iconographical technique: Combined

The technique of painting is a combined one, with velaturas. The layer of the painting is thin. The varnish cover is applied thinly and unevenly. The gilding on the aureoles is with gold-leaf.

Base material: Wood

The base is a softwood panel, without any beams. The ground coat is of plaster, laid thinly and evenly.

State, restoration traces and comments

There are traces of an unskillful restoration in the places of the destroyed to the ground coat layer of the painting in the icon's lower part and on the figures, owing to which the icon is placed in a specially-made glass frame.