Easel icons

The image of Christ Pantocrator was one of the first images of Christ developed in the Early Christian Church and remains a central icon of the Eastern right Churches. Christ holds the New Testament in his left hand and makes the gesture of teaching or of blessing with his right. The name of Christ is written on each side of the halo, as IC and XC. Christ's fingers are depicted in a pose that represents the letters IC, X and C, thereby making the Christogram ICXC (for "Jesus Christ"). The IC is composed of the
Greek characters iota (Ι) and lunate sigma (C; instead of Σ, ς)—the first and last letters of 'Jesus' in Greek (Ἰησοῦς); in XC the letters are chi (Χ) and again the lunate sigma—the first and last letters of 'Christ' in Greek (Χριστός).
Christ has a cruciform halo inscribed with the letters Ο Ω Ν, i.e. ὁ ὢν "He Who Is".

Christ sits on the lap of the Virgin, with his right hand He blesses, and with his left hand He holds a scroll, which corresponds to the iconographic type of Christ Pantocrator (Almighty). Usually the Blessed Mother is presented in a half figure composition. The full-length image depicts both mother and her son enthroned. Unlike the rather close type of Eleusa where the mutual relationship of Mother and Son is the main message, in this icon the center of the composition is Christ facing the upcoming viewer and Mary is also depicted frontally points to Jesus as if saying - "do whatever He tells you" John 2:5

From a dogmatic point of view, the main meaning of this image is the appearance in the world of the "Heavenly King and Judge" and the worship of the royal Infant. This type of icon of the Mother of God is extremely widespread throughout the Christian world, and especially in Byzantium.