Madonna And Child. Icon. Wooden Plaque. 15cm x 10.5cm. Excellent Condition. The retailer on the back was probably associated with Maredret Abbey (Abbaye de Maredret), also known as Abbaye des saints Jean et Scolastique. A monastery of Benedictine nuns. They are very closely associated with crafts, they have particular expertise in the art of illuminated manuscript and also produce their own beer, which has otherwise been the preserve of monks  (the only nuns in Belgium to do so). The print on this plaque appears to be derived from the first " Mother Of God Of Korsun" icon.

Legend has it that the first “Korsun” icon was brought from Korsun (now Khersones in the Crimea) by Prince Vladimir in the year of Russia’s adoption of Christianity—988 A.D. For Vladimir, this icon commemorated an important event. It was in Korsun, a Byzantine settlement on the Black Sea, that Vladimir was baptized. Vladimir’s conversion to Christianity initiated the import of icons from Byzantium to Russia for several centuries until strong Russian schools of icon painting began to emerge.

The “Korsun” icons belong to the iconographic type of “Tenderness” that are beloved by Russian believers. Traditionally, the icons depicting the Mother and the Child in a tender embrace were intended for worship at home and were small.