An antique late 18th-century Russian Orthodox icon of Virgin Mary and Christ Child in the Our Lady of the Sign or Znameniye iconography. Mixed media painting: egg tempera, gesso, and levkas on a wood board. The icon is enclosed in a bronze riza or oklad with ornamental repousse decor and polychrome enamel accents. Incriptions in Church Slavonic; Mother of God, Image of the Sign of the Most Holy Theotokos, year of 1797. The backside of the icon is covered with jacquard farbic. This iconography symbolizes the pregnancy of the Virgin, it shows Mary with hands raised for praying and the figure of the holy infant in her chest in the circle. Russian Christian Religious Items and Collectibles.