My Mary in May art offerings this week are four contemporary variations of The Virgin of the Sign, one of the oldest types of Marian imagery, whose prototype can be found in 4th century Roman catacombs. The title of this portrait of Mary with a second image of Christ contained within a circle representing her womb is taken from Isaiah 7:14 (KJV)--"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel."--a prophetic passage in the Hebrew Scriptures that Christians believe points to the coming of Christ. Ancient images of the Virgin of the Sign show Mary with her hands raised in prayer. In this quartet of modern Virgin Mothers, Mary tenderly enfolds the image of the still-to-be-born Christ Child in her arms. Beginning, clockwise, top left, Ukrainian Greek Catholic Iconmaker Krystyna Yatsyniak depicts the moment of the conception of Jesus, when Mary receives the divine announcement of the coming of the Messiah from the Angel Gabriel, as a circle within a circle. The Virgin with the Holy Man-Child in her womb appears amid streaks of gold in my own depiction of the image. Ukrainian Greek Catholic Artist Hlafira Shcherbak sets the Madonna and Child in a backdrop of what might be boldly colored contemporary stained glass. Cypriot Painter Charalambos Epaminonda offers us a foreshadowing of the full-grown Christ in his Passion in a flower-bedecked version of a Byzantine Virgin of the Sign. (John Kohan)