medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
2. In the very center, as you said, is our Lord Jesus Christ come to meet the soul of His Most Holy Mother and to take him to the Heaven. In byzantine iconography the swaddled child symbolises the soul.
The angels which are all around are bowing in venerating Her for Her shining purity and for Her powerful love for God. The same significance have their veiled hands - the angels are overwhelmed. It is true what you said, too : these veiled hands mean in the same time a presentation gesture, complimentary to the gesture to the gesture of the Lord, presenting the Most Holy Virgin as a gift to the world.
Not only here a gesture has many meanings. This is typical of the byzantine iconography.
For example, the gesture of Christ' S arms, stretched out on the Cross, suggests meantime the embrace of His infinite love to the entire Creation. And not only that, but also His prayer of intercession to the Father.His Cross unifies Heaven and earth(vertical arm), but also the entire Creation (horizontal arm).
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