Icon, Holy Anna - Wood - 18th century

Rare old believers icon, possibly Palech, late 18th century, depicting the Holy Anna expiriencing a vision in which the Arch angel Gabriel appears to her to tell her that her prayers after 50 years of waiting for a child have been full filled and that she will become the Mother of the Virgin Mary who will give Israel the Messiah who will set Israel free. This story comes from the Proto Evangelium of Saint James, written in the second century AD and which describes the history of the birth of the Virgin. In the 12th century Jacob de Voragine adapted these legends in his Legenda Aurora. This icon is a vrezka.