The word Icon comes from the Greek word "eikon" which means image, the same word that describes the creation of man in God's image and likeness. It is the technical terminology used to indicate the sacred images in the Byzantine art, especially the Russian ones, designating a painting on wood opposed to the mural one. The icon usually would represent images of saints or of divine characters. In Occident this term was used to generically describe the antic paintings, of an oriental origin, of a religious subject.

Icons are Apostolic, and healing, and even pre-date the written Gospels. The first icon was made miraculously by Jesus Christ Himself, and the next icons were made by the Holy Apostle Luke. Only few examples of this early period survived the destructive iconoclast fury of the VIII and IX century, especially those of small dimensions. Among the oldest icons are those attributed to St. Luke's own hand, many of the unsigned masters of the Byzantine era, St. Andrei Rublev, the acknowledged greatest iconographer of Russia, the famous post-Byzantine iconographer Theophan the Cretan, Moscow's Armory School founder Simon Ushakov, and many, many others. There is a wide variety of icons from different ages, schools, and iconographers, as well as from many specific locations represented such as St. Catherine's Monastery in Sinai; Holy Dionysiou Monastery and Holy Stavro-Nikita Monastery on Mount Athos, and many other historic monasteries in Russia, Serbia, and Macedonia where there are large selections of famous and historic icons. This is great art, and these are great Christian art treasures, across a spectrum of centuries and millennium, from the historic and living Church as it has expressed itself in many cultures, both East and West.
After the iconoclast heresy of VIII century, many icons were transferred to Occident and many monastic painters migrated to Italian monasteries. In this context the Byzantine art met roman and gothic art and passed on the composition schemes and the Byzantine forms of the métier.

In Tuscany, in the XIV century, the schools of Duccio, of Martini and of Lorenzetti from Siena and Ciambue's school from Florence would resume the art of icon. These painters would respect the antic schemes, but using the realism would create a more real and human Madonna.

The canons of iconografhy

The canons and the methods used to create the icons shaped up throughout many centuries, even before the involvement of the antic Russia. The tradition of iconography arrived in the antic Russia brought by Christianity penetrating from Byzantine Empire at the end of the X century.
The Byzantine art during that time had a strong religious character and submitted to very strict canons. The regulation of the iconography was the result of long discussions and fights, linked to the iconoclast. One of the most important issues of the iconoclast was the ideological and military pressure of the Muslims under the Byzantine Empire. Under Islam the interdiction to venerate the idols, to which the Muslims added the cross and the icons, became absolute.
In 730 the Byzantine emperor Leone III prohibited the cult for icons. Before becoming emperor, he used to work a lot in the oriental provinces of the empire and found himself under the influence of the bishops from Minor Asia, at their turn influenced by Islam. He tried to purify the Christian religion of any material, sensitive or spiritual element. During that period of time a lot of icons, mosaics and frescos were destroyed. The veneration of icon didn't stop even if its followers continued to be cruelly persecuted. The cult for icons was temporary reaccepted in 787 by the Ecumenical Council, and permanently starting with 843.

The icon - as image - was not a copy of the represented subject but rather the symbol, through which we could reach the concept of Divine. The icon played the part of the mystic mediator between the terrestrial world and the celestial one. This was how the meaning of the iconography was delimitated.

The VII Ecumenical Council demanded the icon painters to strictly follow the iconographic canons during the painting process. These iconographic canons regulated either the character or the way of representation of the religious scenes and saints. This can be explained by the fact that the icons were expressions and preservations of the ecclesiastic traditions. It was for this reason that the offence of the iconographic canons and the distortion of traditions led to heresy. The icon was a summarized representation of the Sacred Scripture. It remained unchangeable, the original iconography, the original models being created and transmitted from one author to an other, from one generation to an other. During the elaboration of these models, the faces of the saints - parts of canons - lost their particular forms and changed into symbols - liki as an expression of a supernatural spirituality.

The decisions of the VII Ecumenical Council addressed the whole Christian world. During Middle Age the French king Carl, the future emperor Carl The Greatest, conquered the Byzantine Empire, and didn't accept these decisions (this becoming a logical reason for the opposition between Occident and Orient).

As a response to the decisions of the VII Ecumenical Council, at Carl's initiative, in 790-794 the Carolingian Books have been compiled, in which it was stated that the object of cult could be only God, and in no case the icons. The icons could be used only to adorn the temples and for illustrative means. As a result, the iconographic canon for image wasn't accepted. This is why in the Occidental Church the iconographic models didn't exist and the painters in the Occidental Europe could show their own interpretation of the Christian terms. Little by little, the religious art of the Occidental Europe distanced more and more from the iconography, and created the concept of paintings of religious subjects.

In Byzance and other orthodox countries the situation of the representative art was different. The iconography regulated by canons and the orthodox faith dogmas created a system of coordinates, which showed people the right way on the sea of life. The Byzantine icon painter didn't need to search for new methods of representation - the principles of creating images adequate to the faith were already there. The instauration of iconographic canons played a double part: limited the creative freedom of the icon painter, and it was the incarnation of the rich iconographic experience, the fruit of intellectual and spiritual efforts of former generations. The iconography was a collective creative work, and each painter brought his own contribution to this great work.


The technique of icon painting

The traditions touched not just the iconography, but also the choice of materials used to paint the icon on, the materials for the base, the techniques used for the preparation of the surface to be painted, the technology of colors preparation, the sequence of painting. The process was strenuous and long. The previous examples, the "originals" were used as paradigm for the icon painting.
They contained the indications of how to paint one or another image. By antic tradition the icon should be painted on a well-dried piece of wood. After a long and patient preparation (the wood was covered by a piece of canvas glued together, coated by several layers of plaster, sanded until the surface was smooth and silky), they drew the image. The outline of the drawing was engraved with a metallic pinch and a red tint (called bolo) was spread out, then it was covered with a golden foil. The Byzantine icons were painted using the antic technique of egg-tempera, and all the pigments were natural. Finally a special kind of transparent varnish would protect the painting. On the back of the wood there were information concerning the icon. Once painted, the icons were not considered to be the painter's creation, but God's creations.

There are very few names known of antic Russian iconographers. If God was painting using the hands of the iconographer, it was inappropriate to sign the name of the painter that God used to materialize his creation. On the other hand, the process of painting was a secluded contact with God, and writing the own name wasn't necessary: God knew very well the one that through his prayers and humility tried to represent the Prototype. The authors of the majority of Russian icons are unknown. The icons, as well as the prayers, were the result of a collective creativity; were accurately created by many generations. The icon painter, during the process of painting, created only a new reproduction of the original, meaning the Prototype. Although a great maestro, with very delicate touches, could express himself too. This kind of icon-prayer was a direct and private way of readdressing God and for this reason it wasn't necessary to have the name of the person that created it. The best icons of the antic Russia had a profound spiritual significance, and despite the representation of an unchanged theme, the diversity - as diverse were those who painted them - was astonishing. The life of an icon wasn't more than 100 years. After this time the image faded because the linseed oil changed the color, even more the icon was covered with soot from the candles. At this moment they were restored (on the drawing which could be seen with some effort, they put the new color.)

The icon, illustrating an evangelical episode, represented it beyond time and space, in all its aspects; in the same time presenting all the connected events and a transfigured vision of it. The characters represented in the icons, were painted in a nonrealistic way, but with a transfigured face, which revealed the fact that they belonged to a celestial world and they were only sheltered in an incorruptible body. The body outline didn't respect the anatomic canons. There was a certain sobriety of the characters' movements and gestures, represented in a fixed hieratic attitude and usually frontal in which the movement is almost absent.

The icons are authentic sacred objects. In the oriental churches it is an iconostas, a wall that separates the sanctuary and the rest of the church, which is covered with icons, and represents an angle of conjunction between the life after death world (it's the sanctuary where the divine mysteries happen) and the church central part that holds the praying believers.

The icons are also used in homes for the praying rituals of the family, placed in the oriental corner of the room and honored with candles and incenses, they create a small domestic sanctuary called by the Russians " the beautiful and precious corner."

Long ago the icons were appreciated not just for their religious function, but also for their beauty and for their artistic and esthetic importance.

The Byzantine icons by authors are original works, entirely hand made using the same technique and the same materials as those used for the antic icons. They are unique works, where the effects of the colors are unrepeatable. They are painted in egg-tempera, natural pigments and golden foil on wood, following the canons of the Byzantine tradition and recreating a unique work of art.