A devotional image of Mary, beloved around the world, is the Virgin of Tenderness, also known as "The Icon of Sweet Kisses," where the Virgin Mary rests her cheek against the cheek of the baby Jesus. This endearing portrait of mother and child is said to have been painted from life by the Apostle Luke. I'm presenting it in four variations by international artists in the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection. Beginning, clockwise, from upper left, Ukrainian Iconographer Roman Vasylyk gives his version of the Mother of God of Sambir, a wonder-working icon of the Virgin of Tenderness type, revered by Ukrainian Greek Catholics, from a city close to the Polish border, variously dated from the 12th to 16th centuries. Lithuanian Printmaker Antanas Kmieliauskas offers an intimate headshot of Mary turned in profile to the Infant Christ in a cubistic mixed-media Christmas print. A cultural world away, New Mexico Artist Tim Lucero has created a sweetly depicted Mary and Jesus in the traditional way of the saint-makers of the American Southwest. In the acrylic on rag paper painting, Third World Madonna, Filipino-American Artist Wayne Forte rounds out my quartet of Marian images with a Virgin of Tenderness in the style of Picasso who has found her place in the global village. (John Kohan)