Podea (Greek: ποδέα) clearly designates a cloth hung at the foot of an icon in Orthodox Church, which often accompanied it in religious processions. This hanging often was embroidered with religious scenes or figures of the saints and liturgical writing. The image on a podea might either double or complement the subject of the icon: an epigram by Nicholas Kallikles describes a podea for the icon of the Theotokos at the Hodegon as “an image of the image”.
Embroidered podea came as an essential supplement to the iconic image, and entered a sophisticated interaction with it to produce another level of perceiving the icon, which allowed to enrich, and develop on, the theme it treated.