{{Short description|Icon type with the Child pressing cheek of Mary}} {{Redirect|Eleousa||Eleousa (disambiguation)}} [[File:MCB-mosaicob.jpg|thumb|right|13th-century Byzantine Eleusa mosaic, Athens]]

The '''Eleusa''' (or '''''Eleousa'''''; {{langx|el|Ἐλεούσα}} – ''tenderness'' or ''showing mercy'') is a type of depiction of the Virgin Mary in icons in which the Christ Child is nestled against her cheek.<ref>''The icon handbook: a guide to understanding icons and the liturgy'' by David Coomler 1995 {{ISBN|0-87243-210-6}} page 203</ref> In the Western Church the type is often known as the '''Virgin of Tenderness'''.

==Depictions== Such icons have been venerated in the Eastern Church for centuries.<ref>''The Meaning of Icons'', by Vladimir Lossky with Léonid Ouspensky, SVS Press, 1999. {{ISBN|0-913836-99-0}} page 85</ref> Similar types of depiction are also found in Madonna paintings in the Western Church where they are called the '''Madonna Eleusa''',<ref>''The era of Michelangelo: masterpieces from the Albertina'' by Achim Gnann 2004 {{ISBN|88-370-2755-9}} page 54</ref> or the Virgin of Tenderness. By the 19th century examples such as the ''Lady of Refuge'' type (e.g. the ''Refugium Peccatorum Madonna'' by Luigi Crosio) were widespread and they were also used in retablos in Mexican art.<ref>''Art and faith in Mexico: the nineteenth-century retablo tradition'' by Charles Muir Lovell. {{ISBN|0-8263-2324-3}}. pp. 93–94.</ref>

In Eastern Orthodoxy the term '''Panagia Eleousa''' is often used. The Theotokos of Vladimir and Theotokos of Pochayiv are well-known examples of this type of icon. '''Eleusa''' is also used as epithet for describing and praising the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) in the Eastern Orthodox tradition.

While the Eastern Church does not generally create three-dimensional religious art, Eleusa-style reliefs and sculptures, as well as icons, have also been used in the Western Church.

The Pelagonitissa is a variant in which the infant Jesus makes an abrupt movement.<ref name=Tradigo >{{cite book|last=Tradigo|first=Alfredo|title=Icons And Saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church|year=2004|publisher=Getty Publications|page=180|isbn=9780892368457|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uODOkMgUZKYC&pg=PA180}}</ref>

==Gallery==

===Eastern icons=== <gallery> File:Vladimirskaya.jpg|Vladimirskaya File:Feodorovskaya ikona so skazaniem.jpg|Fyodorovskaya File:Theotokos of Tolga (fragment).jpg|Tolgskaya File:Feofan Donskaja.jpg|Donskaya File:Angelos Akotantos - Icon of the Mother of God and Infant Christ (Virgin Eleousa) - 2010.154 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif|''The Virgin Eleousa'', Crete, c. 1425, Cleveland Museum of Art </gallery>

===Western icons=== <gallery> File:The Cambrai Madonna.jpg|''Cambrai Madonna'', Italo-Byzantine, c. 1340, Cambrai Cathedral

File:Tempi Madonna - Raphael.jpg|''Tempi Madonna'', Raphael, 1508, Alte Pinakothek File:Della-Robbia-Sevilla1.jpg|"Eleusa style" Relief by Andrea della Robbia in Seville File:Wga Pompeo Batoni Madonna and Child.jpg|Pompeo Batoni, c. 1742 </gallery>

==See also== * List of Theotokos of St. Theodore icons * Marian devotions * Marian art

==Sources== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category|Eleusa}} * [http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/58371/rec/3 Byzantium: faith and power (1261–1557)], an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Eleusa icons

{{Madonna styles|state=expanded}} {{Virgin Mary}}

Category:Byzantine art Category:Eastern Orthodox icons of the Virgin Mary Category:Titles of Mary, mother of Jesus Category:Virgin Mary in art