Chronology
1579 The Prototype appeared in Kazan, where it has remained and established the Graeco-Russian iconographic type of the Virgin of Kazan, with the Virgin bending to the right with the head inclined towards the Infant Christ who is standing upright.
1612 A copy was Brought to Moscow by Prince Pozharski from Kazan on his march to Moscow and was accommodated (1630) in the new Kazan Cathedral which was built to receive it in commemoration of his victory.
1708 Another copy was brought from Moscow to St Petersburg In 1708 the St Petersburg Kazan Cathedral was eventually built to receive it in 1811. (The Farley Castle Icon is a work of fine art and is so magnificently jeweled that it can only be one of these.)
1737 The original Moscow copy was still in situ. Its wonderworking power is said to have quenched a fire at St. George’s Convent, near the Cathedral.
1768 The Prototype was still in place at Kazan. The Empress Catherine II embellished it with a new crown of diamonds.
1904 The Prototype in Kazan was destroyed and only the jewels of the riza being recovered. (The Times Reuter’s Correspondent)
1911 The Original St. Petersburg copy was still in situ. (Reference the Cathedral authorities in their Monograph with an illustration)
1917 The Bolshevik revolution and subsequent dispersal of many treasures belonging to the Royal family the nobility and the Russian Orthodox Church.
1933 N. P. Kondakov conforms that the Kazan prototype was no longer in existence and says that the Moscow Cathedral copy “exists”.
1935 The Moscow Cathedral copy reached Western Europe.
1950 It passes into the possession of Mr.Mitchell-Hedges. (This is the dates given by Bunt when in fact the date should be September 1953.)
1956 The inescapable conclusion is that the Mitchell-Hedges icon is the Virgin of Kazan formerly in the Kazan Cathedral in Moscow
Summary of Mr. Cyril G.E. Bunt’s notes (December 1956)
Tags: Mitchell-Hedges | Virgin of Kazan
