{{Short description|Type of depiction of the Virgin Mary}} [[File:Bogorodica Pelagonitisa.JPG|thumb|Pelagonitissa painting formerly in Zrze Monastery]] The '''Pelagonitissa''' (also known as "The Virgin with the Playing Child") is a type of depiction of the Virgin Mary (often in icons) in which the Virgin holds an infant Jesus in an abrupt movement, his head back and grabbing onto her.<ref name=Tradigo />
Pelagonitissa was developed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the Byzantine Empire, particularly in Macedonia. The name ''Pelagonitissa'' refers to the city of Bitola, previously known as ''Pelagonia''.<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|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uODOkMgUZKYC&pg=PA180|isbn=9780892368457}}</ref>
[[File:Ikonenmalerei mother-of-god-pelagonitissa Nagoričane.jpg|thumb|Pelagonitissa painting in the Church of St. George, Staro Nagoričane]] Pelagonitissa is often seen as a variant of the Eleusa icon in which the infant Jesus rests.<ref name=Tradigo /> One of the best-known examples is in the Church of St. George, Staro Nagoričane, restored by the Serbian king Milutin in the 13th century.<ref>{{cite book|title=Icons And Power: The Mother of God in Byzantium|last=Pentcheva|first=Bissera V.|year=2006|isbn=0271025514|page=97|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SD7sOSsx2JwC&pg=PA97}}</ref>
==See also== * List of Theotokos of St. Theodore icons * Marian devotions * Marian art
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Commons category inline|Pelagonitissa}}
{{Madonna styles}}
Category:Eastern Orthodox icons of the Virgin Mary Category:Culture of the Byzantine Empire Category:Virgin Mary in art
{{orthodoxy-stub}}