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The article is devoted to the portraits of Princess Sophia Alekseyevna placed in the representation of the two-headed eagle (so-called portraits “in the eagle”). There are three paintings of this kind and an engraving (the latter has not survived). The engraving was made by Leon or Alexander Tarassevich in 1689 (it is not excluded that Alexander Tarassevich and Leon Tarassevich were one and the same person with a double name) while the portraits seem to have been modelled on the engraving. The composition in question has undoubtedly a Western prototype: the portraits of Sophia Alekseyevna imitated a portrait of Leopold I, the Holy Roman emperor. However in the Russian context the portraits of the Princess could be perceived as a modification of the Russian coat of arms where traditionally there was an image of the monarch within the two-headed eagle. There are grounds to believe that the portraits were intended for the coronation of Sophia Alekseyevna which seems to be planned on the 1st of September 1689.
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