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25. Our Lady with Child, 6th century.

Encaustic on plaster on panel, 35.5 × 20.5 cm.

Museum of Western and Oriental Art, Kiev.

The veneration for icons in early Russia soon exceeded the bounds of ancient custom and the visual side of prayer took the form of endless bowing to icons. In the enumeration of Latin errors, which forms part of the epistle of Michael Cerularius (A.D.1054), much is made of their refusal of reverence for the ‘holy icons’, which was one of the most conspicuous outer signs of Orthodoxy.[30] However, in Russia icons attained an incomparably wider development than in Byzantium; a practically new class, that of the devotional icon (molénnaya), arose (almost unknown to the Greeks except in the type of folding icons for journeys, derived from the pilgrim icons) and there came into being a great artistic craft.

This development was of course closely connected with the abundance of wood supplied by the boundless forests of northern Russia – in the east it was difficult to get hold of a panel for a big fixed icon that would not warp or split. In Russia the icon-makers showed off their mastery of woodwork in executing the orders of the Stróganovs. It should be noted that only eighteenth-century icons and common ones at that (raskhózhiya, made for general sale, not for particular orders) are warped ‘outwards’ with the painted side convex so that they split and the shpónki or cleats for keeping them straight fall out of their grooves at the back. Early icons of the Novgorod, Pskov and First Moscow or so-called Stróganov schools remain straight, though it is true that the straightness is sometimes attained by the restorers steaming or ‘poulticing’ them on one side.

At the time when Russian icon-painting in the Suzdal’ and Novgorod school touched its highest point, the word ‘sizable’ (mêrnaya from mêra, measure) came to be applied to an icon which was of the size customary for each class of icon. This is an important point, as the term often occurs in the inventories of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The ‘sizable’ icon came in when the dimensions of the icons in the different tiers of the iconostas had become settled and the types of devotional icons more or less fixed. This fixing of dimensions resulted in a transformation of the nature of the craft: every pupil or under-workman could now copy a drawing and transfer it (perevód is the kind of stencil so produced) to another icon for an iconostas or oratory without having to make it larger or smaller, that is to say, without having to possess any skill in drawing. From this we can easily see why the drawing in the Novgorod school simplifies the Byzantine scheme to such a degree, whereas in the Moscow school, such rude simplification is less prevalent: of course the church iconostases were of the first importance in this, as by ready tracings they could be executed by pupils or mere journeymen.

Greek iconostases[31] and their imitations, the iconostases of early Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and the like, consisted of marble or wooden pillars or columns, joined below by slabs (cancelli, transennae), above by an entablature: in the spaces between the columns were the large ‘fixed’ icons and the smaller ‘Festivals’. Upon the occasion of a festival it was usual to place the appropriate icon upon a lectern or desk for the faithful to kiss: accordingly icons of this class were the most likely to be easily taken from their places and put within reach and this Greek custom was adopted in Russia. But in fifteenth century Russia, and soon after in the Greek countries, there arose a new type of iconostas with five or six tiers. This seems to be the result of the introduction of the triple icon called Deisus. The Deesis (I keep the Greek shape of the word) showed Christ enthroned with the Virgin on his right and S. John the Baptist on his left: it might consist of whole figures, half-lengths, or merely heads. As long as this was a single icon, though it spoilt the symmetry of the other ‘fixed’ icons, it was put in the bottom tier. When it became a triple icon, it was set above the Festivals where the Greeks (and Latins) had of old put the Crucifixion flanked sometimes by Mary and S. John the Divine.

26. Royal Doors, middle of the 16th century.

Regional Museum of Rivne, Ukraine.

27. Royal Doors, 15th to 16th century.

National Museum, Przemys’l, Poland.

28. Saint Sergius and Saint Bacchus, 7th century.

Museum of Western and Oriental Art, Kiev.

When the three icons of the Deesis were put up high, they were flanked on each side by figures of Archangels, Apostles, and Fathers. This is often called a chin[32] and might form a whole Deesis tier, sometimes called the tier of Holy Fathers (Svyatíteli). Next made was the crowning tier of the Prophets on each side of the Virgin and Child. Much later, added above this, was the tier of the Patriarchs. Both these tiers might have the figures either whole or half length. They might even be fixed to the chancel arch, so as entirely to separate the apse from the nave. Above all was sometimes a row of Cherubim. The first mention of these high iconostases is in 1508.

The iconostas of the Uspenski Cathedral at Moscow provides an excellent example. In the bottom row are the Royal Doors with the Annunciation and the Four Evangelists; to the north or left of this is the Kiot of Our Lady of Vladimir, then Our Lord, adored by Barlaam Khutynski and brought from Novgorod in 1476, next Our Lady of Smolénsk: the pillar hides four ‘fixed’ icons and the door leading into the Prothesis, the door seen beyond it leads into a side-chapel; above it is a famous Vernicle, Yároe Óko; by it an icon of S. Nicholas, and a Holy Trinity round the corner. To the south of the Royal Doors is a fixed icon of Our Lord, also brought from Novgorod, and next it the icon of the Dormition, the dedication feast of the cathedral; behind the pillar is the door into the Diaconicon and another into another chapel; by this, icons of the Annunciation and The Queen Did Stand. The next tier in this case is given to the Deesis in full form, Christ flanked by the Virgin Mary and S. John the Baptist, then the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, S. Peter, S. Paul behind the right pillars and then other Apostles. In the next tier of Festivals can be distinguished, beginning from the north, the Birth of Our Lady, Her Presentation in the Temple, the Annunciation, (Nativity, Presentation), Baptism, Raising of Lazarus, Entry into Jerusalem, Transfiguration, Crucifixion, Descent from the Cross, Entombment (Resurrection, Unbelief of S. Thomas), Ascension (and beyond the Trinity, the Descent of the Holy Spirit, and the Dormition). In the fourth tier Our Lady Holding Emmanuel Upon her Lap is flanked by David and Solomon and the other figures are all Prophets. In the top tier God of Sabaoth, with Christ and the Dove is in the midst of the twelve Patriarchs. The smaller iconostas of the chapel of the Nativity of Our Lady in S. Sophia at Novgorod are all of the sixteenth century. The Royal Doors are better examples, having upon their posts the Virgin and Christ, holy Bishops below, Deacons above, and the double Eucharist in the spandrels. The fixed icons are the Annunciation, Our Lady of Vladimir, the Trinity, and the Nativity of Our Lady. The upper tiers answer roughly to the Moscow example, but the Deesis has holy Bishops as well as Apostles, and the top tier has only four Patriarchs.

29. Martyrs, 6th to 7th century.

Encaustic on plaster on panel, 54.5 × 48.5 cm.

Museum of Western and Oriental Art, Kiev.

30. The Archangel Michael, end of the 11th century to the beginning of the 12th century. From the Church of Saints Cyrius and Juliette, Lagourka, Georgia. National Museum of History and Ethnography of Svaneti, Mestia, Georgia.

31. The Virgin of the Caves “Svenskaya”, end of the 11th century to the beginning of the 12th century.

Egg tempera on wood, 67 × 42 cm.

The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

32. The Apostle Phillip and the Saints Theodore and Demetrius, end of the 11th century to the beginning of the 12th century.

Egg tempera on plaster on wood, 41 × 50 cm.

The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

It would be a mistake to suppose that all these erections of icons, and iconostases, these tiers of icons, fixed icons, and groups of icons apparent throughout ancient Russian churches are merely decorative furnishing. On the contrary, as opposed to the true wall-paintings, all these tiers and groups received a definite spiritual meaning. To this day, as the pious worshipper goes round before service to venerate the various icons (called poklónnÿya because people bend the knee before them: poklón is a deep bow), they are, as it were, making a pilgrimage round what early Christianity would have termed the holy memoriae of their church.

With the development of the tall iconostas, Russian icon-painting came to devote special attention to the Royal Doors in the centre and to the side doors in the screen which lead to the Credence and the Sacristy (prothesis and diaconicon): these doors are either decorated with wood-carving or covered with icons. The Royal Doors (the name goes back to Byzantine usage[33]) had, at first, only room upon their panels for the Four Evangelists, but when they grew higher the Annunciation was added above, Gabriel on one side, and the B.V.M. on the other. From the tenth to the fourteenth centuries in both Greece and Russia this was represented upon two pillars in the sanctuary rising above the iconostas. Next, for the sake of decorative effect, they began to hang the Royal Doors upon special door-posts to support them and to set a canopy or tabernacle over them after the fashion of a kiot[34] or icon-shrine. It became the custom to paint upon the three surfaces of the posts series of holy Bishops and Deacons, beginning with Stephen, the first Deacon, complete with their censers and incense boxes. On the canopy was painted either the Eucharist[35] or the Old Testament Trinity;[36] later, under western influence, the Last Supper, the Vernicle, or Picture Not Made with Hands, Our Lady of the Sign (Známenie),[37] Sophia the Wisdom of God, and others. More varied and interesting were the subjects painted upon the northern and southern doors: the Archangel Michael, the Guardian Angel, the Prophet Daniel, the Creation of Adam, the Expulsion from Paradise, Jacob’s Ladder, Abraham’s Bosom, and many other subjects.

These are all edifying themes and their teaching was clear to the uneducated Christian. They were symbols telling of the doors of paradise, shut against the sinner, guarded by the Archangel with the flaming sword, but open to the soul of the just, purged from original sin and granted access to heaven.

From the sixteenth century we observe a multiplication of icons in the churches, in domestic oratories (called also obraznáya, a room set apart for obrazá – icons), in monasteries, cells and chapels, and further in the living-rooms and offices of houses, and also above entrance gates and doors. A special class of icons is that of birth-icons, which are given to children at their birth, and coffin or funerary icons given to a church and preserved in a person’s memory. The icons of the Moscow Tsars fall into this category and still kept in special cupboards along the walls of the Archangel Cathedral in the Kremlin at Moscow, the burial place of the old Tsars. Specially honoured icons were protected from incense smoke and dust by curtains of light silk: in houses curtains veiled them against the doings of everyday life. The popularity of particular subjects was influenced by their use on different occasions of life, icons of the Christ and of The Virgin for the nuptial blessing, Christ above gates, and the Deesis above the entrance of the older churches. The multiplication of icons was broadly connected with the custom of having in every house an oratory, generally several glazed kiots filled with icons and set in the so-called ‘fair corner’ (krásny úgol) of a reception or a dining-room. Wealthier people would have a separate room for the oratory and in it the icons would be arranged in regular tiers with shelves for lamps to burn before them.

Mounting and external adornment of icons which, side by side with excellence of painting, was the subject of pious zeal on the part of donors. Even the Greeks, as early as the tenth century, yielding to the general taste for ornamental backgrounds, began adorning the whole field of the icons with stamped sheets of silver and the raised borders or true frames with similar strips of silver, which were sometimes set with jewels. The golden nimbus of early times from being flat was given relief as a halo (vênchik) adorned with repoussé or with filigree of twisted gold wire (skan) sometimes picked out with enamel (finíff); later the halo took the form of an actual crown. For example, the golden diadem discovered at Kiev[38] where it had been buried for safety at the time of the Mongol invasion, with its tiny enamel representation of the Deesis, and figures of Archangels and Apostles, is similar to the halo from a large icon but has the shape of a diadem. The zeal of donors did not stop short at these directly symbolic adornments; they began to decorate icons with silver-gilt pendants, likewise in the symbolic form of crescents (the word in Russian is hanging tsáta) and to the haloes they began to add earrings and strings of pearls or beads.

As long ago as the fourteenth century, under Greek influence, the Russians began to cover even the figures with plates of silver showing in more or less relief the outlines and folds of the clothes and vestments. Such a plate is called à ríza, properly speaking a garment, especially a chasuble[39]; they were first applied to the large ‘fixed’ icons and afterwards to those which individuals received at baptism or on special occasions. The parts of the figures left unclothed, faces, hands, and the like, all the flesh tints, show through holes in the riza. This is how Paul of Aleppo describes the look of the icons in the Uspenski Cathedral at Moscow: ‘All round the church and about the four piers are set great icons of which you can see nothing but the hands and faces, hardly any of the clothing can be distinguished [i.e. the painting], the rest is thick repoussé silver with niello. The greater parts of the icons are Greek.’ Paul did not distinguish between true Greek icons and copies going back to Greek originals.

Naturally even more decoration was applied to the devotional icon in private hands: this came to stand not merely as a symbol or sign, but a kind of household protector and defender; against evil spirits and the invasion of the Devil, icons of the Martyr S. Nicetas, the vanquisher of evil spirits; against fiery conflagration, the figure of Elias the Prophet or his Ascent in a Fiery Chariot or else of Our Lady the Burning Bush; against murrain among cattle, the icon of S. Blaise (Vlási); from sickness, S. Panteleimon; from sudden death, S. Christopher.

Under Peter the Great the Russian bishops were carried away by his movement for reform and enlightenment in the direction of Protestantism and a purging of faith and ritual and gave the clergy directions to clear the icons of unnecessary ‘additions’. The result was a general reduction of ancient objects in churches, especially of icons valuable for their antiquity or for their mountings. Pearls taken off icons are (or were) shown by the bushel in rich monasteries.[40] At the same period, there came to an end the perpetual care which is necessary to keep icons from decay and universal destruction set in. An icon requires careful preservation; it must have a more or less steady temperature and suffers from variations in it and also from excessive moisture and dust. The thin layer of gesso that carries the paint swells up, cracks, and scales off, so that many places are left bare. Dust does significant damage, especially if an icon is horizontal, or if a dusty icon gets alternately damp and dry. In the old days the icons were looked after; in the palaces of Moscow there was an Office of Icons (obraznáya paláta, from obraz – icon) which collected old icons and contained shops for mending and cleaning them. Of course, it must be granted that this looking after icons and frequent cataloguing of them led to a general repainting in order to restore them and freshen up the colours, so that an old icon could be returned in a new style.

33. Our Lady Hodegetria, 10th to 17th century.

Gold, gilded silver, wood, enamels, pearls, precious and semi-precious stones, 32 × 33 cm.

Art Museum of Georgia, Tbilisi, Georgia.

34. Saint Luke the Evangelist, 1056–1057.

Miniature of the Ostromir Gospel.

The National Library of Russia, St. Petersburg.

35. The Synaxarium of the Three Hierarchs, 1073.

Miniature of the Sviatoslav Collection.

Museum of History of Moscow, Moscow.