The icon of the ioasaph mother of god (kept in the moscow archangel cathedral) the eight-sheet lectern icon of the mother of god, painted in the greek style on a linden board with a notch, is known under the name of the ioasaph mother of god in the moscow archangel cathedral. Judging by the design and coloring, it was painted in russia: both the hardness of one and the fussiness of the other closely resemble the style of the rublev school. The face of the mother of god is rounder than oblong, without bonyness, but with a liveliness; its expression is more gloomy than tender; the nose is small, thin, the eyes are without teardrops, which have appeared on icons since the 16th century. The pre-personal is ochre in color, without iconography, while the pre-personal of the savior has golden gvents. On the forehead and chest of the mother of god are three stars, signifying her virginity before the nativity, at the nativity, and after the nativity. The icon's decoration is remarkable for its art and richness. Its fields, or svets, are covered with a gold filigree frame with enamel; the mother of god has a gold crown with gorodki, a torque and three tsats suspended from it. Both are strewn with precious stones, mostly unfaceted. The savior has the same crown with gorodki. On the gold beads along the fields of the image, the following faces are painted in niello: the holy trinity, st. John the baptist, archangel gabriel, st. Nicholas the wonderworker, st. Basil of paria, theodore stratelates, john climacus, st. Sergius and anastasia of rome. Since, according to an ancient custom in rus', on st. Icons often depicted saints who shared the same name with members of a family, and the saints on the icon of the ioasaph mother of god probably immortalized the names of the family that owned it; for here we find saints john the baptist, theodore stratelates, and anastasia the roman, who shared the same names with tsar ivan vasilyevich, tsarina anastasia romanovna, and tsarevich feodor. If the icon had been made by tsar feodor alekseevich, to whom the inventory attributes this image, then the saints who shared the same name with his parent and one of his wives, agafya or martha, would probably have been depicted on the panels. More likely, this icon was a prayer icon, a room icon, and was given to him as a blessing from his parent, and was perhaps sent to the cathedral after his death as a tomb icon to be carried out. As for the name of the ioasaph icon, it is not found among the appearances of icons of the mother of god. And since the moscow patriarchs, upon their accession to the holy throne, had the custom of presenting holy icons to the tsar as a blessing, then either ioasaph i presented it to tsar mikhail fyodorovich, or ioasaph ii presented it to tsar alexei mikhailovich, from whom it could have been inherited by his son and successor fyodor under the name "ioasaph". Date: 1846—1853.
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