A Russian Orthodox icon showing Our Lady of the Sign, or Platytera. Hand painted with egg tempera, gesso and levkas on the wood board. Theotokos is depicted facing directly with her hands raised in the orans position and with the image of the Child Jesus depicted within a round aureole upon her breast. Circa the mid late 20th century. Icons of the Virgin, known as The Sign, appeared in Russia during the 11th to 12th centuries. The Novgorod Znamenie icon became highly venerated in the Novgorod Republic because of what Orthodox Christians believe to be the miraculous deliverance of Novgorod from invasion in the year 1170. Russian Orthodox Icons And Religious Collectibles.