The podea “Our Lady of Vladimir with Selected Saints” was manufactured by the gold embroidery workshop of Yevdokiya Nesterovna Stroganova during the period when the Stroganov pictorial embroidery was formed — between 1620 and the first half of the 1630s.

The podea was donated by Yevdokiya Stroganova, wife of Semyon Anikeyevich Stroganov, and her daughter-in-law Matrona Ivanovna to the Solvychegodsk Annunciation Cathedral.

The image of Our Lady of Vladimir is embroidered in the centerpiece of the podea. Its iconography goes back to the famous miracle-working image of the 12th century: the Virgin Mary holds the Child with Her left arm, with Her gaze directed not towards the Child but towards the viewer. The Child is depicted reaching for His Mother. He is nestled against Her cheek and embraces Her neck with His left hand.

The podea’s border scenes, similar to icon cases, are embroidered with half-length images of saints.

The podea accompanied the family prayer icon, which is why, along with the “chapel saints” (whose names are born by the chapels of the Solvychegodsk Annunciation Cathedral), it depicts the patron saints of Yevdokiya Stroganova’s family members.

The faces and other exposed parts of the body of the Virgin Mary, Child, and the saints are embroidered with very fine pearl-gray twisted silk threads, using the “satin” stitch “according to the form”, without shadows. The images are embroidered using dark blue silk.

The clothes and other details of the composition are embroidered mainly with silver and gold threads using the couching technique. The background is covered with drawn silver threads. Colorful couching threads form traditional geometric patterns. Some clothes of the saints in the border scenes are made using the filigree technique. The silver background of the centerpiece features an embroidered pattern in the form of climbing red stems with dark blue, light blue, and green flowers.

Sixteen silver and gold tassels are sewn to the bottom edge of the podea (the 17th one has been lost). All gold cord outlines of figures, halos, and other details of the podea were added later (the original ones were made of dark blue silk). The pearl strings and gemstones on the Virgin Mary’s crown and the nimbuses in the centerpiece have been lost and replaced by glass, metal cord, beaten metal threads, and sequins.