VISUAL THEOLOGY

Icon with the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, 1400–1500, Byzantine Wood, painted, with gold ground, 44.5 x 42.2 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) ■ Icons painted on wood were the principal objects of religious devotion in the last centuries of Byzantium. Identified by a Greek inscription as "the Purification," this icon shows the Virgin presenting the Christ Child to Simeon for the customary rite of purification at the temple. Like Simeon, the prophet Anna (between Joseph and Mary) recognized the child's divinity, as indicated by the Greek text on the scroll in her hand: "This child created Heaven and Earth."