The Canonical image in the context of the history of the face: overpainting and reconstruction of an icon

ENAfter restoration conducted from 2008 to 2012, the so-called image of Our Lady of Lukiškės in the Vilnius Church of St Philip and St Jacob was identified as the Hodegetria of Smolensk, a unique icon attributed to the Dionysius school from the late 15th – early 16th century. In the present research, the process of the transformation of the icon into a Western-style painting is hypothetically reconstructed. The transformation, restoration and research of the canonical image are integrated into the paradigm of the anthropology of the image and analysed using the concepts of the “overpainting” and “reconstruction” of the face, “the real face of an icon” and “a portrait as a similar face” used in the “History of the Face” by Hans Belting.