The most ancient image of the Blessed Virgin Kikkskaya was created by Apostle Luke in Egypt in I century AD. Researches classify the ancient Kikkskaya icon as a type of the Virgin of Tenderness — the Leaping of the Babe. The characteristic feature of that sacred image is that the Blessed Virgin and baby Jesus are depicted cheek-to-cheek. During the persecution of Christians, they wanted to destroy the sacred image sending it from Egypt to Byzantium, which was then considered to be the center of iconoclasts.

The icon from the collection of the Rybinsk museum was created in 1693 in the Rybnaya Sloboda, the predecessor of the city of Rybinsk. It was created by the local iconographer Leontiy Tumenev who, as experts believe, used as a model the eponymous icon by Simon Ushakov. The iconographer from the Rybnaya Sloboda probably saw the Moscow first-hand. In 1676 Tsar Fyodor Alexeyevich bestowed the Rybnaya Sloboda to Boyar Bogdan Khitrovo, who was in charge of the Kremlin Armoury in 1655-1680. All that could have contributed to the Sloboda’s acquaintance with the art traditions of the tsar’s masters. 

The master from the Rybinskaya Sloboda repeated the composition of Simon Ushakov’s icon to a great extent and copied some techniques from the Moscow icon painter. On the icon of the Rybinsk Museum one can notice shadowing in the folds of the clothing, the maphorion is painted in crimson, while its lapels in delicate green.

The icon became part of the museum collection in 1967. Prior to that it was kept in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in the village of Borzovo near Rybinsk. It was spotted lying on the floor of the closed and deserted church, and they managed to bring it to the museum shortly before the church was looted.