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Why are there some Icons with the Theotokos is in all blue?
I Have one from Ukraine and the mantle and tunic of the Theotokos is blue.

In Byzantium, the royal color of the Empress was blue. Thereafter, the Mother of God was portrayed often wearing blue.

Seems to me, also that colors are often indicitive of the heritage of the people. While the Theotokos is in blue, the colors in a lot of their icons are much more vivid. I was very impressed by the difference in colors when I first came into the Church. But, then I may be wrong.

Purple was the royal colour in Byzantium and also the royalty wore red shoes as depicted in some icons.
The "vibrant colours" that Rose was referring to are symbpolic.
For example, in the 2 icons of Christ and His mother in the first row of the iconostasis.
Christ wears a red garment because here red symbolized his divinity and a blue cloak because here blue sybolizes humanity. The message is that Jesus the Divine (the red garment) put on humanity (the blue cloak).
With the Mother of God, the colours are the opposite: She is wearing a blue garment to symbolize her humanity and she puts on a red cloak with symbolizes her taking on Christ, the Divine One in her womb,
I recommend reading Ouspensky's "The Meaning of Icons."

You will find Icons of the Mother of God with lighter blue garments creeping into Ukraine in the 17th century and from ther north to Russia.

The best-known example of the Theotokos in blue in Ukraine is in Saint Volodymyr's Cathedral in Kyiv - it's often referred to as the "Blue Madonna". It was painted in the 19th century.

Fr. Serge

Yes, it is certainly a masterpiece of art but I myself do not like this type of realistic art in "iconographic style", favoured by the 19th century Russian Imperial Academy of Art.

In 1852, Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow suggested a large cathedral should be built in Kyiv to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the baptism of Kyivan Rus Rus by Grand Prince, St. Volodymy the Great.
However, professors and artists of the Russian Imperial Academy of Art were in charge.
For eaxample, the face on the Theotokos by Vasnetsov in the altar apse of the cathedral is a copy of the daughter of Professor A. Prakhov, who was in charge of the project.

Unfortunately, one can see copies of Vasnetsov'e painting in other churches.

Our dear brother Marian sent this to me. I am on my way to PA now, but I just had to share it with you.

http://65.54.250.250/cgi-bin/getmsg/MaicaDomnului.jpg?&msg=F47A169E-85A7-475C-A1C1-F79BA46A6915&start=0&len=3527261&mimepart=5&curmbox=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&b=f03d268bedec8e9f4d46e6f972af9bde&disk=10.1.106.213_d1071&login=srwans&domain=hotmail%2ecom&hm___sig=63d2f42001c75c13d67b4026d04fea2ec00c278cf174e059

The link took me to MSN? I wonder what's up with that?

Dear Friends,

In fact, the blue colour was, first and foremost, set down in the Old Testament as the colour of God's people and so blue figures prominently in the garb of the Theotokos Who is the bridge between the Old and New Testaments.

(This is also where the term "true blue" comes from when Protestants wore this colour as a "patriotic" emblem of sorts).

The further Christian explanation of this symbolism builds on the OT tradition.

Alex