# Icon of the Mother of God and Infant Christ (Virgin Eleousa)

**Angelos Akotantos** (Cretan, died 1450)  
c. 1425–50  
tempera and gold on wood  
Unframed: 96 x 70 cm (37 13/16 x 27 9/16 in.)

Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 2010.154. [The museum's record](https://clevelandart.org/art/2010.154).

## About this work

This large icon of a tender embrace between the Virgin Mary and Christ likely hung on a Greek Orthodox church’s iconostasis, a screen separating the congregation from the altar-containing sanctuary, which only clergy could enter. A skilled painter of faces and draperies, Angelos Akotantos was among Crete’s most sought-after artists. Based in Byzantium’s artistic center in his hometown of Candia, he painted for imperial clients and beyond. Despite theological differences, Cretan icons of Mary were popular in Ethiopia. In the early 1500s, Emperor Lebna Dengel sent monks Zekre and Pawli to acquire Cretan icons for him. Twenty-nine Cretan icons are still venerated (honored) in Ethiopian churches.

_Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art._

Angelos Akotantos painted this in about 1425–50. It is now at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

### How it was made

- **Gold ground.** Gold leaf laid over a red clay and burnished to a mirror shine, often tooled with punches so it flickers in candlelight. Behind sacred figures it stands for heavenly light.
- **Tempera.** Pigment bound with egg yolk. It dries in minutes and can’t be blended wet, so painters built up form with fine, hatched strokes. It was Europe’s main panel technique before oil.

### [Angelos Akotantos](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/angelos-akotantos)

Cretan, died 1450

## Facts

- Type: Painting
- Culture: Republic of Venice, Kingdom of Candia, Candia (Heraklion, Crete, Greece) or Byzantine Empire, Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey)
- Real size: about 38 × 28 in (96 × 70 cm). The original is larger than our largest print, 18 × 24 in, so every print is a reduction.
- Century: 15th century
- Colour: brown
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/771.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/771/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/icon-of-the-mother-of-god-and-infant-christ-virgin-eleousa-cma-168322).