The life-giving spring (Zoödochos Pege).

Previous title, replaced May 2025: The fountain of life, and saints. Oil painting.

approximately 1700.

1 painting : egg tempera paint, wood, gilding ; 66 x 72 cm

Wellcome Collection 44950i

The painting shows a spring in Istanbul acclaimed for its healing powers. According to Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition, on 4 April 450, the Virgin Mary spoke to a soldier searching for water for a blind man. Calling him ‘emperor’, she instructed: “go into the deepest part of the woods, and you will find water there. Take some of the cloudy water in your hands and give it to the blind man to drink… Then you shall know who I am." The blind man recovered his eyesight, and the soldier later became the Byzantine Emperor, Leo I. A monastery was later built on the site of the spring.

Purchased from Au petit Moise, Istanbul, in 1931 for £11. The triptych is described in the accession register as "People healing at sacred well".

Exhibited in "Medicine man: the forgotten museum of Henry Wellcome" at The British Museum, London, 26 June - 16 November 2003.