In this icon of the Nativity, the composition is dominated by the rocky cave, which towers, flame-like, over everything else. In the center of the composition, on a flat area in front of the cave entrance, the Virgin is depicted kneeling, not lying down as is more usual, with her hands crossed before her breast, venerating Christ, who lies in a low marble manger inside the cave. Behind the manger are two animals warming the Holy Child with their breath. A broad ray of divine light falls upon him from the star.The subsidiary scenes are arranged symmetrically around and below the cave. Inspired by the Gospels, both canonical and Apocryphal, they frame and supplement the principal subject of the Nativity. At the bottom left sits Joseph, pensive and withdrawn, accompanied by an old shepherd leaning on his stick. At the bottom right is the scene of the bathing of the infant, which comes from the Apocryphal Gospel of James. It consists of the midwife on the right, an elderly woman sitting on the ground holding Christ with one arm and testing the temperature of the water in the bath with her other hand; and a young woman, Salome, on the left pouring water into the bath from a jug. Behind the midwife, a cat and a dog are discernible, though they do not survive in their entirety.
Immediately to the right of the manger, sits a young shepherd wearing a wreath and playing his flute to a group of sheep. A little further up, another shepherd, standing, receives the glad tidings from an angel; and to the left of the peak, a dense crowd of angels is depicted glorifying God. Below them, the three Magi ride up to render homage, their gaze fixed on the guiding star.
Information obtained from the
Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Treasures of Mt. Athos