It comes from the Ascension Cathedral of the Ascension Monastery in the Moscow Kremlin. The Chronicler reports that in the fire of 1482 this icon of Greek writing lost its colorful layer and salary, and the board survived. And then Dionysius was commissioned to write on the same board an icon “in the same image.” The iconographic type of Our Lady of the Odigitria was very revered in Russia.
It is known that the Archbishop of Suzdal, Dionysius, took from Constantinople in 1381 two exact copies from the illustrious image of the Odigitria and placed them in his Suzdal cathedral and in the Nizhny Novgorod cathedral. It is possible that one of these copies fell into the Ascension Cathedral. But it could be another remark, like the one kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery. Dionysius was here connected in a way that he had to exactly repeat Lika, as usual with Dionysius, written very gently, without abrupt transitions from light to shadow.
Sanker is applied in a thin layer, the bud is absent, the melts are imperceptibly flowing one into the other. This deprives the person of the relief and volume and in no small measure contributes to their dematerialization. Elegant half-figures of angels, dressed in turquoise-blue, green and yellow robes, are inspired by the ruble saints. They are written in a very thin miniature technique, giving a good idea of the manner of writing the master, in which he worked, performing works of small scale.
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