What is the difference between an icon and a painting? What is the difference between an Orthodox icon and a painting
The question often arises: why is it necessary to adhere to the canonical methods of representation, if they are very strange from the point of view of realistic visual literacy: there are obvious violations of the proportions of figures, and a distorted transfer of the texture of materials, and a violation of the laws of linear perspective? Or maybe the ancient icon painters simply did not have elementary skills in drawing? And isn't it better to have well-painted pictures in churches?
Comparative analysis of an icon and a painting - a painting, highlighting the main external and internal differences, will help answer these questions.
Let's look at the internals first.
A painting (and a painting should be understood not only as works of a secular nature, but also painting on religious themes) is an artistic image created by the artist’s creative imagination and is a form of conveying his own worldview. Does the worldview, in turn, depend on objective reasons? historical situation, political system, on the type and character of the artist's personality itself, on the way of his life. All outstanding artists were able to feel what excites their contemporaries and, refracting the social nerve of the era through themselves, left a concentrated artistic image of their time on the canvas.
An icon is a revelation of God, expressed in the language of lines and colors, which is given both to the whole Church and to an individual. The worldview of an icon painter is the worldview of the Church. The icon is out of time, it is a symbol of otherness in our world.
The picture is characterized by a pronounced individuality of the author, a peculiar pictorial manner, specific methods of composition, a characteristic color scheme. Anyone, even a person who is not completely versed in painting, will not confuse the canvases of Nesterov or Alexander Ivanov.
The picture should be emotional, since art is a form of knowledge and reflection of the world through feelings. The picture belongs to the spiritual world.
The icon painter's brush is impassive: personal emotions should not have a place. In the liturgical life of the Church, the icon, like the manner of reading prayers by the psalmist, is devoid of external emotions; empathy with spoken words and the perception of iconographic symbols occur on a spiritual level.
Speaking about the unemotionality of the Orthodox icon, one cannot but say about the exaltation of the Catholic icon, or rather, the picture. And the fundamental differences lie here in the opposite prayer and ascetic practices. Eastern Orthodox asceticism is alien to any sensuality, which cannot be said about the Catholic one, in which everything is subject to mystical ecstasy, accompanied by both hallucinations and the appearance of stigmata - bloody smudges on the body. Archpriest Sergei Bulgakov described his impression of the "Sistine 
Madonna" Raphael: "Here is beauty, only wondrous human beauty, with its religious ambiguity, but ... gracelessness. To pray in front of this image: - this is blasphemy and impossibility! For some reason, the angels and the perfumer Barbara, in a cloying pose with a coquettish half-smile, particularly hit my nerves... I clearly understood that it was she, the dazzling wisdom of an Orthodox icon, that made Raphael tasteless for me... The beauty of the Renaissance is not holiness, but something ambiguous, demonic principle that covers the void, and his smile plays on the lips of Leonard's heroes.
Now about what are the main stylistic features of the pictorial language of Orthodox icon painting, that is, what are the external differences between an icon and a painting. Since we are talking about specific things, it should be agreed that the icon will mean not only the icons themselves, but also the murals, and the picture - works made in the traditions of realistic visual literacy, that is, in such a picturesque manner that developed in the era Italian Renaissance.
So the first difference. The icon is characterized by an underlined conventionality of the image. It is not so much the object itself that is depicted as the idea of the object; everything is subject to the revelation of the inner meaning. Hence the "deformed", as a rule, elongated proportions of the figures - the idea of the transformed flesh that lives in the heavenly world. The icon does not have that triumph of corporality that can be seen, say, on the canvases of Rubens.
Evgeny Nikolaevich Trubetskoy, in his already classical work“Speculation in Colors” writes: “An icon is not a portrait, but a prototype of the coming temple humanity. And, since we do not yet see this humanity in today’s sinful people, but only indicate it, the icon can serve only as a symbolic image of it. What does this mean? This is a sharply expressed denial of the very biologism that elevates the saturation of the flesh to the highest and unconditional commandment... The emaciated faces of the saints on the icons oppose this... to the kingdom of self-sufficing and well-fed flesh, not only "thinned feelings", but above all - a new norm of life relations. This is the kingdom that flesh and blood do not inherit."
For example, one can compare any icon of the Mother of God painted according to the canons and Leonardo da Vinci's Benois Madonna from the Hermitage collection. In the first case, a person faces the image of the Mother of God, who is deified and glorified above the ranks of angels, and in the second, he contemplates only an earthly, pretty woman with a baby, although some elements of iconography are present in this work, for example, halos, however, in the Catholic version of their image.
Or you can follow how clothes are depicted on canonical icons: instead of soft and smooth lines of fabric folds, there are hard, graphic breaks that contrast in a special way with the soft painting of faces. But the lines of the folds are not chaotic, they are subject to the general compositional rhythm of the icon. In this approach to the image, the idea of consecration of both the person and the physical objects surrounding him can be traced.
According to Leonid Alexandrovich Uspensky, "the property of holiness is that it sanctifies everything that comes into contact with it. This is the beginning of the coming transformation of the world."
Another example: the depiction of mountains on Orthodox icons. These are not the blue Roerich peaks, along the slopes of which numerous yogis wander, - no, on the icons they are symbols of a true spiritual ascent: the ascent to some faceless absolute, but to the personal and One God. Therefore, the hills on the icons have breezes - a kind of stylized steps, thanks to which the mountain takes on the meaning of a ladder.
The second difference between the style of an icon and a realistic painting is the principle of depicting space. The picture is built according to the laws of direct perspective. What it is can be figured out if you present a drawing or photograph of a railway track. It is easy to see that the rails converge at one point located on the horizon line. 
The icon is characterized by a reverse perspective, where the vanishing point is located not in the depths of the picture plane, but in the person standing in front of the icon - the idea of pouring the heavenly world into our world, the world of the valley. And the parallel lines on the icon do not converge, but, on the contrary, expand in the space of the icon. And there is no space as such. The foreground and background in icons have not a perspective - pictorial, but a semantic meaning. On the icons, distant objects are not hidden behind a light, airy veil, as they are depicted in realistic paintings - no, these objects and details of the landscape are included in the overall composition as foreground. Of course, it should be noted that the icon-painting canon is not a rigid scheme, and one cannot turn it into a GOST, but an icon into a drawing. Therefore, the icon painter has some rights to modify the established pattern, depending on what theological meaning he wants to emphasize in this iconography. And therefore on the icon you can sometimes see images of iconography elements, made both in reverse and in direct perspective.
The third difference. Absence external source Sveta. Light comes from faces and figures, from their depths, as a symbol of holiness. There is a wonderful comparison of icon painting with light painting. Indeed, if you carefully look at the icon of ancient writing, it is impossible to determine where the light source is located, and consequently, it is not visible, and the shadows falling from the figures. The icon is luminiferous, and the faces are modeled due to the light pouring out from within the faces themselves. And this weaving of images from light makes us turn to such theological concepts as hesychasm and humanism, which, in turn, grew out of the gospel testimony of the Transfiguration of our Lord on Mount Tabor.
After six days, Jesus took Peter, James and John, his brother, and brought them up to a high mountain alone, and was transfigured before them: and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with Him. At this Peter said to Jesus: Lord! it's good for us to be here; if you wish, we will make three tabernacles here: one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, this bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold, a voice from the cloud, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; Listen to him. And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were very afraid. But Jesus, coming forward, touched them and said, Stand up and be not afraid. And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus alone. And as they were descending from the mountain, Jesus forbade them, saying: Tell no one about this vision until the Son of Man has risen from the dead (Matt. 17:1-9).
The middle of the XIV century was marked by a long controversy between two theological trends that interpreted the nature of the Divine Light of Tabor in different ways: hesychasts and humanists. Understanding the foundations of this dispute is extremely important for a serious understanding of the theology of sacred images, since two different views on this problem gave rise to two opposite trends in the development of church painting: Western (Catholic), which led iconography to secular art and was expressed in its entirety in the Renaissance, and Eastern (Orthodox), which did not mix worldly art and iconography as a liturgical concept.
Humanists believed that the light that the Savior shone with is the light that was revealed by the Savior at a certain moment; this light has a purely physical nature and therefore is accessible to earthly vision. The Hesychasts, which in Greek means “silent” or “silent”, argued that this light is inherent in the nature of the Son of God, but is hidden by the flesh, and therefore can only be seen with enlightened vision, that is, the eyes of a highly spiritual person. This light is uncreated, it is inherent in the Divine from the very beginning. At the moment of the Transfiguration, the Lord Himself opened the eyes of the disciples so that they could see what was inaccessible to ordinary vision.
In 1351 in Constantinople local cathedral St. Gregory Palamas offered his confession to the fathers of the cathedral, in which he touched upon the question of the nature of the light of Tabor, convincingly proving the legitimacy of the opinion of the hesychasts: "... the common grace of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and the light of the future age, in which the righteous will shine like the sun, as Christ presented it when He shone on the Mountain ... - this Divine Light is uncreated, and all the power and energy of the Divine - nothing, from everything that belongs by nature to God, did not arise recently ... "
In one of his sermons, Saint Gregory said: “Do you understand that bodily eyes are blind to this light? Consequently, the light itself is also not sensible, and the chosen apostles who saw it did not see it simply with bodily eyes, but with eyes that were prepared for this Holy Spirit. This means that only when the eyes of the apostles were changed did they see the change that our composite nature has undergone since the time when it was deified, united with the Word of God.
Of course, hesychasm does not exist only in relation to sacred images. This is, in fact, a whole Christian worldview, a special path to the salvation of the soul, the path through the narrow gates of Orthodox asceticism to deification, the path of unceasing prayer - smart doing. Not without reason among the greatest hesychasts are called Reverend Sergius Radonezh. And in relation to the icon, we can draw the following conclusion: the icon is a sacred image, seen not with ordinary, but with enlightened vision. The icon shows the Divine essence of holiness, while the picture reveals to us the external, material beauty, which in itself is not bad, since admiring the beauty of the world created by God, even if it is distorted by the fall of the world, is also saving.
Attention should be paid to how halos are depicted on Orthodox icons and in cataloque paintings. Among Catholics, a halo is a round flat object depicted in perspective, as if hanging over the head. This object is something separated from the figure, given to it from the outside. Orthodox haloes describe a circle around the head and represent something inextricably linked with the figure. The Catholic halo is the crown of holiness, given from the outside, and the Orthodox halo is the crown of holiness, born from the inside. 
There is a description made by N. A. Motovilov and which has already become a textbook description of the radiance of Divine light emanating from the head of the Monk Seraphim of Sarov: “After these words, I looked into his face and attacked me with even greater reverent horror. the brightness of its midday rays is the face of the person talking to you.You see the movement of his lips, the changing expression of his eyes, you hear his voice, you feel that someone is holding your shoulders with his hands, but not only do you not see these hands, neither yourself nor figures, but only one dazzling light, stretching far, several sazhens around and illuminating with its bright brilliance both the snowy veil covering the clearing, and the snow groats falling down from above, and the great old man and me.
Thus, the Catholic halo is a crown given to the righteous for his labors, the Orthodox halo is the unquenchable light of Divine glory, born inside the saint and constituting a single whole with his transfigured flesh.
Fourth difference. Color is not a means of coloristic construction of the icon, it has a symbolic function.
For example, the red color on the icons of martyrs can symbolize self-sacrifice for the sake of Christ, while on other icons it is the color of royal dignity. I would especially like to say about the gold on the icons. Gold is a symbol of Divine light, and in order to convey the radiance of this uncreated light on icons, not paints were required, but a special material. This material was gold as a metal, not subject to corrosion. Gold on icons is the antithesis of the function of gold as a symbol of earthly wealth. The golden halos of the saints, the golden sparkles on their robes - assists or inakop - a sign of radiance with the light of Divine glory, a sign of participation in the Divine and grace. But not all icons can be found gold. This material was not always used by icon painters, as in some cases there simply were not enough funds to purchase it. Therefore, a kind of color synonyms for gold appeared - these are golden-yellow ocher, red (that is, beautiful) and white. Black color on icons is used only in those cases when it is necessary to show the forces of evil or the underworld.
Fifth. For character icons, the simultaneity of the image: all events occur at once. On the Novgorod icon of the 15th century, depicting the Transfiguration of the Lord, one can see both Christ ascending the mountain with his disciples, and the Lord Transfigured, and the disciples, fallen on their faces (Matthew 17:6), and theirs descending from the mountain. And on the icon "Assumption of the Mother of God" the apostles are simultaneously depicted, carried by angels to the death bed of the Virgin, and the same apostles, already standing around the bed. This suggests that the events of the Sacred History that took place in our real time and space have a different image in the spiritual space. The event that took place twenty centuries ago is also effective now, it is outside the space-time framework, it still has the same effect on the main goal of the Incarnation: the Salvation of all human souls from eternal death.
Western artists interpreted the significance of the gospel events for all times and peoples in a very interesting and naive way. For example, Tintoretto's "The Nativity of John the Baptist" depicts the interior of a rich Italian house, and the people are depicted in clothes belonging to the era in which the artist lived. In the paintings of the masters of the Northern Renaissance, one can meet people dressed in robes characteristic of the inhabitants of Palestine in the first century after the Nativity of Christ, and, at the same time, medieval knights in armor. Of course, in many cases, this style was the result of elementary ignorance of the history of world architecture and costume, but it seems that initially it was still a well-thought-out concept of the image.
The canonical icon does not have random details or decorations devoid of semantic meaning. Even the salary - the decoration of the front surface of the icon board - was not recognized by the ancient icon painters, since its function is purely decorative.
Sometimes one can come across the opinion that artistic language Orthodox icon painting and the conventional sign of Eastern - Japanese and Chinese - painting and engraving are very similar. On the outside, yes. Here is a conditional transfer of space, local colors that have their own symbolism, and much more, which formally recalls the language of the icon. But there is an abyss between these two things. Icon - evidence of true God, icon-phenomenon religious.
I must say that the word "religion", which is unusual for everyone, is actually applicable only to Christianity. The meaning of this Latin word is reunion. Reunion of the broken connection of fallen man with God. If you look at the connections of fallen man with God. If you look at all the world's beliefs, then only Christianity makes it possible to truly restore this connection. The Jews are still waiting for their messiah, Muslim Allah, the Buddhist Absolute and the pantheon of Hindu gods have nothing to do with the Holy Trinity and the Savior - God, who incarnated in the human world in order to save and deify this world.
And one of the threads connecting a person with God is an icon. And the Oriental painting in question is also a thread, but a thread that connects a person with the material world around him.
Archimandrite Raphael has wonderful lines dedicated to this particular topic: "Artists 
China and Japan have created a technique and style that is somewhat reminiscent of icon painting, but this is an external and superficial similarity. ... A Chinese artist looks like an old aristocrat who lost faith in God long ago, but retained the nobility and refinement of manners brought up over the centuries."
It is always necessary to see the inner content behind the external form. And this content influences the form itself. St. Gregory of Nyssa, in the 5th chapter of the additions to the "Shestodnev" of St. Basil the Great, wrote: "Divine beauty is manifested not in any outward form and not in charm external image conditioned by some kind of elegance of colors, but is seen in indescribable bliss in accordance with virtue ... so that the beauty of the prototype was accurately transferred like ".
Summing up all that has been said, we can conclude that the main task of an icon, in contrast to a picture that conveys the sensual, material side of the world, is to show the reality of the spiritual world, to give a sense of the real presence of a saint. The picture is a milestone on the path of the aesthetic development of a person; the icon is a milestone on the path of salvation.
The article was prepared based on the materials of the "Encyclopedia
Orthodox icons. Fundamentals of the theology of the icon.
This is much more difficult to achieve.
The difficulty also lies in the fact that since the 18th century, the canonical icon has been replaced by icons of the so-called “academic” writing – in fact, paintings on religious themes. This style of icon painting, which is characterized by frank admiration for the beauty of forms, emphasized decorativeness and pomp of the icon board, came to Russia from the West and received special development in the post-Petrine time, in the synodal period of the history of the Russian Orthodox Church.
And, in this case, it is legitimate to ask the question: what is an icon and what is a picture? Is spiritual rebirth possible from the contemplation of a painting, or can it only be the result of prayerful standing in front of an icon?
Proponents of a “painterly” approach to the external form of sacred images often have the following question: why now, in a world where a completely different visual aesthetic environment, different from the distant era of the formation of iconography, is it necessary to adhere to the canonical methods of depiction? They are very strange from the point of view of realistic visual literacy: the proportions of the figures are violated, the transfer of the texture of materials is distorted, there are no principles of linear perspective?
Will this not serve as some kind of argument in defense of the primitive idea that the ancient icon painters simply did not have elementary skills in drawing? And isn't it better, in this case, to have well-painted pictures in churches?
After all, in the 19th-20th centuries, it was permissible to perform both murals in churches and prayer icons in the traditions of academic painting? And examples of this are St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg or St. Vladimir's Cathedral in Kyiv.
With the greatest degree of clarity, these questions can be answered with the help of a comparative analysis of an icon and a painting - paintings, in which it is necessary to highlight the main external - stylistic, and internal - theological differences.
First about the internals.
A painting (and a painting should be understood not only as works of a secular nature, but also painting on religious themes) is an artistic image created by the artist’s creative imagination and is a form of conveying his own worldview. The attitude, in turn, depends on objective reasons: the historical situation, the political system, the type and character of the artist's personality itself, and the way of his life. All outstanding artists were able to feel what excites their contemporaries and, refracting the social nerve of the era through themselves, left a concentrated artistic image of their time on the canvas.
An icon is a revelation of God, expressed in the language of lines and colors, which is given both to the whole Church and to an individual. The worldview of the icon painter is the worldview of the Church. The icon is out of time, it is a reflection of otherness in our world.
In an icon, as in a painting, there is a generalization according to a well-defined principle - the general is expressed through the particular. But in the picture this particular is purely personal, unique features. Therefore, the picture has a pronounced individuality of the author. It finds its expression in a peculiar pictorial manner, specific methods of composition, in a coloristic color scheme.
The authorship of the icon painter is deliberately hidden, since the icon is a conciliar creation; icon painting is not self-expression, but service and ascetic work. If the artist puts his signature on the finished picture, which means not only authorship, but also the measure of responsibility for the work, then the name of the person whose face is shown on the icon board is inscribed on the icon. In the ontological sense, there is a combination of name and image.
The picture should be emotional, since art is a form of knowledge and reflection of the world through feelings. The picture belongs to the spiritual world.
The icon painter's brush is impassive: personal emotions should not have a place. In the liturgical life of the Church, the icon, like the manner of reading prayers by the psalmist, is deliberately devoid of external emotions; empathy with spoken words and the perception of iconographic symbols occur on a spiritual level.
The icon is a means of communication with God and His saints.
Before starting the comparison stylistic features icon painting and painting, it should be said that the pictorial language of Christian sacred images developed in stages and the synergy of the inner - sacred, and the outer - figurative-emotional, which was formed over the centuries, received its final expression in the rules and guidelines iconographic canon. An icon is not an illustration of Holy Scripture and church history, not a portrait of a saint, although the Church has always taken into account the cognitive and enlightening function of sacred images. The icon for the Orthodox Christian serves as a kind of mediator between the tangible sensory world and the world inaccessible to everyday perception, the world that is known only by faith. In other words, the icon is called to reveal the lost beauty and dissimilarity of the world that was before the fall, and to proclaim the world to come, changed and transfigured. And the canon, as a strictly regulated way of conveying this dissimilarity, does not allow the icon to descend to the level of secular painting.
Since now we will talk about specifics, we need to agree that the icon will mean not only the icons themselves, but also the murals, and the picture - works made in the traditions of realistic visual literacy, that is, in such a picturesque manner that developed in the era of Italian Renaissance.
First difference.
The icon is characterized by an underlined conventionality of the image. It is not so much the object itself that is depicted as the idea of the object; everything is subject to the revelation of the inner meaning. Hence the “deformed”, as a rule, elongated proportions of the figures - the idea of the transformed flesh that lives in the heavenly world. The icon does not have that triumph of corporality that can be seen, say, on the canvases of Rubens.
The principle of depicting an object in reverse perspective (left) and in direct perspective (right)
Direct perspective in a painting
The third difference.
No external light source. Light comes from faces and figures, from their depths, as a symbol of holiness. There is a wonderful comparison of icon painting with light painting. Indeed, if you carefully look at the icon of ancient writing, it is impossible to determine where the source of light is located, and, consequently, the shadows falling from the figures are not visible. The icon is luminiferous, and the faces are modeled due to the light pouring out from within the faces themselves. Technically, this is done in a special way of writing, in which the white ground layer - gesso - shines through the paint layer. Such a weaving of images from light makes us turn to such theological concepts as hesychasm and humanism, which, in turn, grew out of the gospel witness to the Transfiguration of our Lord on Mount Tabor.
Reverse perspective in icon
The face on the icon (left) and the face in the picture (right)
After six days, Jesus took Peter, James and John, his brother, and brought them up to a high mountain alone, and was transformed before them: and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light ().
The middle of the XIV century was marked by a long controversy between two theological trends that interpreted the nature of the Divine Light of Tabor in different ways: hesychasts and humanists. Humanists believed that the light with which the Savior shone is the light that was revealed by the Savior at a certain moment; this light has a purely physical nature and therefore is accessible to earthly vision. The Hesychasts, which in Greek means “silent” or “silent”, argued that this light is inherent in the nature of the Son of God, but is hidden by the flesh, and therefore can only be seen with enlightened vision, that is, the eyes of a highly spiritual person. This light is uncreated, it is inherent in the Divine from the very beginning. At the moment of the Transfiguration, the Lord Himself opened the eyes of the disciples so that they could see what was inaccessible to ordinary vision.
Of course, hesychasm, as a holistic Christian worldview, a special path through the narrow gates of Orthodox asceticism to deification, the path of unceasing prayer - smart doing, has no direct relationship to sacred images. Although there is a widespread opinion that it was hesychasm that allowed icon painting to survive in its entirety, made it possible to recognize the icon as an object that, in its sacred essence, is accessible not to ordinary, but to enlightened vision, while humanism contributed to the rebirth of the icon into secular painting.
Speaking about the light on the icons, it is necessary to touch upon such a characteristic detail of iconography as halos. Nimbus, as a symbol of holiness, intoxication with Divine light, is the most important feature of Christian sacred images. On Orthodox icons, the halo is an environment that is integral with the figure of the saint. For Western, Catholic sacred images and paintings, a different arrangement is characteristic: a halo in the form of a circle hangs over the saint's head. It can be concluded that the Catholic version of the halo is a reward given to the saint from the outside, while the Orthodox version is a crown of holiness born from within. The Orthodox tradition of depicting a halo involves the combination of two wills: the will of a person striving for holiness and the will of God, responding to this desire and reviving in a person that unquenchable light that is given to everyone.
Nimbus Orthodox (left) and Catholic (right)
Fourth difference.
Color is not a means of coloristic construction of the icon, it has a symbolic function.
For example, the red color on the icons of martyrs can symbolize self-sacrifice for the sake of Christ, while on other icons it is the color of royal dignity.
I would especially like to say about the gold on the icons. Gold is a symbol of Divine light, and in order to convey the radiance of this uncreated light on the icons, not paints were required, but a special material. Gold became such a material as a metal that is not subject to corrosion. Gold on icons is the antithesis of the function of gold as a symbol of earthly wealth. Golden haloes of saints. Golden sequins on their robes - assists or inakop - a sign of participation in the Divine by grace.
Color synonyms for gold are golden yellow ocher, red (that is, beautiful) and white. White is the color of sacrificial animals. For example, a lamb.
A deaf black color, a color through which gesso does not shine through, is used on icons only in cases where it is necessary to show the forces of evil or the underworld.
Fifth difference.
Icons are characterized by the simultaneity of the image: all events occur at once. The icon “Assumption of the Mother of God” simultaneously depicts the apostles being carried by angels to the death bed of the Mother of God, and the same apostles already standing around the bed. This suggests that the events of Sacred history that took place in our real time and space have a different image in spiritual space. The event that took place twenty centuries ago is also effective now, it is outside the space-time framework, it still has the same effect on the main goal of the Incarnation: the salvation of all human souls from eternal death.
Icon "Assumption of the Mother of God"
Western artists interpreted the significance of the gospel events for all times and peoples in a very interesting and naive way. For example, Tintoretto's "The Nativity of John the Baptist" depicts the interior of a rich Italian house, and people are depicted in clothes belonging to the era in which the artist lived. In the paintings of the masters of the Northern Renaissance, one can meet people dressed in robes characteristic of the inhabitants of Palestine in the first century after the Nativity of Christ, and, at the same time, medieval knights in armor. Of course, in many cases, this style was the result of an elementary ignorance of world architecture and costume, but it seems that initially it was still a well-thought-out concept of the image.
Painting by Tintoretto "The Birth of John the Baptist" (above)
Rogier van der Weyden Adoration of the Magi (bottom)
The canonical icon does not have random details or decorations devoid of semantic meaning. Even the salary - the decoration of the front surface of the icon board - has its own rationale. This is a kind of veil that protects the shrine, hiding it from unworthy glances.
These, in general terms, are the main differences between an icon and a painting.
In this analysis, only two positions were considered - theological and stylistic. But there is also a third one - this is the perception of the icon and the picture by a person and, most importantly, his attitude towards them.
Imagine two collectors who get a unique dagger made by an outstanding craftsman. The first collector - a non-religious person - will gladly accept such an item in his collection. Despite the fact that this dagger is an instrument of a satanic cult and served for human sacrifice. Perhaps such knowledge about the subject in the mind of this collector will only give even greater status to this exhibit. He will place the dagger in a conspicuous place and will admire the virtuosity of its decoration.
Another collector, though not deeply religious, but at least striving for Christian values, will shudder from such an acquisition.
This example is evidence that knowledge about the purpose of an object, the assessment of its functional affiliation, directly depends on what feelings and emotions this object arouses in a person. The picture, the coloring of which strikes with the refinement of colors, and the composition with the proportionality and harmony of all elements, is unlikely to find a true response in the heart of a Christian if its idea is the justification of world evil.
Of course, the external beauty of an object without its pronounced purpose simply cannot exist. The internal in an object actively influences the external, and a ritual murder weapon, on the blade of which traces of blood are implicitly felt, cannot be called truly beautiful.
True beauty is the unity of form and content, moreover, of a content that is inextricably linked with the Creator of beauty. An example is the image of the Cross or the image of the Crucifixion. New content was introduced into the essence of the shameful and terrible execution, and this content so transformed its essence that both the execution tool and the execution itself served as a prototype for both icons and paintings, and the image of the execution tool began to be revered as sacred.
Reverence. This word is the key to understanding the role of the icon in the spiritual development of a person and the role of fine art in the mental and emotional upbringing of the individual. Can a painting become an object of reverence? Undoubtedly. The best examples of painting have great aesthetic and material value. Not only the artistic merit of the canvas is revered, but also the manifestation of the creative power of a person, and not necessarily a specific author, but a person in general, a person as a creation of God, as a likeness of the Creator, endowed with the ability to create.
So, it would seem that everything is simple: we contemplate a picture - a work of art, and stand before a sacred image - an icon - in prayer. But this simplicity is apparent. The difference between an object intended for religious purposes and an object whose purpose is aesthetic pleasure is not always unambiguously expressed in the field of human perception. Painting, especially painting on religious subjects, can also cause the transformation of the human soul, just like an icon.
Icon veneration is not only a dogmatic principle. This is also a mystical experience of experiencing a different reality.
The church venerates hundreds miraculous icons, prayers, akathists dedicated to them have been created; in the annual liturgical circle there are days of their honoring.
Philosopher Nikolai Mikhailovich Tarabukin very briefly and accurately expressed the essence of the veneration of miraculous icons: “All religion and everything connected with it is miraculous, because everything that is effective in the religious sense is the result of a mysterious connection between a believing being and Divine Providence ... Miracle-working through an icon is an act of effective the efforts of the mind of the believer, turned with prayer to God, and the act of condescension of the grace of God in response to the prayerful efforts of the believer.
Summing up all that has been said, we can conclude that the main task of the icon is to show the reality of the spiritual world. In contrast to the picture, which conveys the sensual, material side of the world. The picture is a milestone on the path of the aesthetic development of a person; the icon is a milestone on the path of salvation.
But in any case, an icon is always a shrine, no matter in what pictorial manner it is executed. The main thing is to always feel the degree of responsibility of the icon painter for his work to the one he depicts: the image must be worthy of the prototype.
Icon is a book about faith
The word icon is Greek and in Russian means “image”, “image”. Holy tradition says that Jesus Christ himself was the first to give people His visible image.
King Abgar, who ruled during the earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Syrian city of Edessa, was seriously ill with leprosy. Having heard that in Palestine there is a great "prophet and miracle worker" Jesus, who teaches about the Kingdom of God and heals any illness, Abgar believed in Him and sent his court painter Ananias to give Jesus a letter from Abgar with a request for healing and
An icon is a figuratively expressed prayer, and it is understood mainly through prayer. The icon is designed only for a believing Christian praying in front of it, its purpose is to promote prayer. Prayer will explain a lot in the icon without words, make it understandable, close, show how spiritually true, how irrefutably true. With the language of lines and colors, the icon reveals the teachings of the Church. And the purer and higher the life of a Christian, the more accessible to his soul the language of the icon.
In the icon, the church wants to express its teaching, its history, the dogmas of faith, that is, theology, prayer, as the breath of spiritual life, the spiritual experience of the fathers and teachers of the Universal Church.
The world does not see the saints, just as the blind do not see the light. The vision of the Church differs from the usual, worldly in that in what is visible to everyone, she sees the invisible; in the temporal stream of life, she sees the stream of eternity. And it is precisely what eludes ordinary vision that the Church shows in the icon-painting image.
But how can one express the inexpressible, show holiness, grace? It is clear that there are no human means for this. Therefore, church art, which has been developing its image for centuries, gives in it only a hint, a kind of likeness, a symbolic designation of the invisible; gives special forms, special colors and lines, a special, unique language, only assimilated by the Church, such an image, which, with a deep, attentive approach to it, turns out to be completely corresponding to the state that the holy fathers described verbally. Obviously, such an image cannot be written in any way and with anything. Obviously, there can be nothing random, individual, arbitrary, capricious here. The language of the icon was developed by the mind of the Church, peoples and history under the grace-filled guidance of the Holy Spirit, who always abides in the Church.
The icon expresses a single, once and for all established truth that cannot be changed. This inviolability of its foundation requires the same firm and stable constructive forms of the image itself, as well as the means of its expression. Such are the traditions of icon painting.
The one who is looking for external beauty in an icon is mistaken - the meaning of icons is much deeper. Church creativity is distinguished by a slightly different understanding of beauty. Spiritual beauty is higher than bodily, and the goal Christian life lies in the ascent to the Primary Source of beauty - God.
Our distant ancestors, who lived during the heyday of icon painting in pre-Petrine Rus', had the language of the icon quite accessible, since this language is understandable to people who know the Holy Scriptures, the rites of worship and participate in the sacraments. For a modern person, especially one who has recently come to the Church, this is much more difficult to achieve. The difficulty also lies in the fact that since the 18th century, the canonical icon has been replaced by icons of academic writing - in fact, paintings on religious themes. This style of icon painting, which came to Russia from the Catholic West, was particularly developed in the post-Petrine era, during the Synodal period in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church.
And at present, despite the fact that modern icon painters are reviving the traditions of canonical writing, in many churches, for the most part, you can see images in the academic style.
Of course, an icon is always a shrine, no matter how pictorially it is executed. The main thing is to always feel the degree of responsibility of the icon painter for his work to the one he depicts: the image must be worthy of the Prototype.
But at the same time, the question often arises: why, then, is it necessary to adhere to the ancient rules of icon painting, if they are very strange from the point of view of realistic visual literacy - and obvious violations of the proportions of figures, and a distorted transfer of the texture of materials, and violation of the laws of linear perspective? Maybe the ancient icon painters simply did not have basic drawing skills? And isn't it better to have well-painted pictures in churches and at home instead of icons?
A comparative analysis of an icon and a painting will help answer these questions - a picture that highlights the main external and internal differences.
picturesque picture |
Icon |
Internal differences between paintings and icons |
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The picture is characterized by a pronounced individuality of the author, a peculiar pictorial manner, specific methods of composition, a characteristic color scheme. The very fact of the painting's authorship can be of primary importance in assessing it by the public. |
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The painter, finishing the picture, puts his signature on it. This is not just a formal confirmation of authorship - it is a statement of one's view of the world. |
The icon painter, completing the icon, inscribes the name of the one whose face is revealed on the icon board. There is a combination of word and image, name and image - an icon is born. |
The picture should be emotional, since art is a form of knowledge and reflection of the surrounding world through feelings; the picture belongs to the world of the soul, the world of sensuality. |
The icon painter's brush is impassive: personal emotions should not have a place. The icon is devoid of external emotions - the perception of iconographic symbols takes place on a spiritual level. |
The icon is a means of communication with God and His saints. |
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It may seem difficult to single out external differences, since painting over the centuries of its existence has generated many techniques, schools, and directions. But with all this diversity, an icon differs from a painting by a number of very important points:
- Emphasized conditionality of the image. It is not so much the object itself that is depicted as the idea of the object; everything is subject to the revelation of the inner meaning. Hence the "deformed", as a rule elongated, proportions of the figures - the idea of the transformed flesh that lives in the heavenly world.
- The principle of the image of space. The icon is characterized by a reverse perspective, where the vanishing point is located not in the depths of the picture plane on an imaginary horizon line, but in the person standing in front of the icon - the idea of pouring the heavenly world into our world, the earthly world. But at the same time, images in the reverse perspective are not always present on the canonical icons. On the same icon, depending on the theological idea, images can be found both in reverse and in direct perspective. ( read an interesting article about reverse perspective )
- No external light source. . The icon is luminous in itself. Light comes from faces and figures, from their depths, as a symbol of holiness. Technically, this is done in a special way of writing, in which the white ground layer (gesso) shines through the paints. (see section How we paint icons(icon painting technique).
- On some icons, we can see the simultaneity of the image: several events occur at once. So, for example, on the icon of the Introduction, the young Blessed Virgin is depicted on it twice: in front of the steps of the temple and in the temple itself, in communion with the Archangel Gabriel.
- Color is not a means of coloristic construction of the icon, it has a symbolic function. For example, the red color on the icons of martyrs can symbolize self-sacrifice for the sake of Christ, and on other icons it is the color of royal dignity ( see section What does the icon mean(symbolism of the icon).
- the main task icons, in contrast to the picture, which conveys the sensual, material side of the world - to show the reality of the spiritual world, to give a sense of the real presence of the saint. The picture is a milestone on the path of the aesthetic development of a person; the icon is a milestone on the path of salvation.
- The canonical icon does not have random details, decorations, devoid of semantic meaning. Even the salary was not recognized by the ancient icon painters, since its function is purely decorative.
It is by comparing an icon with a painting that it is often much easier to understand the meaning, to understand the icon.
An Orthodox icon is a pictorial image that embodies the word of God. Everything that testifies of God must be worthy of Him, and therefore in the icon great importance has a formal side, namely, the skill of the icon painter. The icon (especially the Old Russian) is a part of world artistic culture, and the names of outstanding icon painters are known not only to the Orthodox world.
Characteristic features of the icon
1. The icon depicts not so much the object itself as the idea of the object; everything is subject to the revelation of the inner meaning. Hence the "deformed" - elongated proportions of the figures - the idea of the transformed flesh that lives in the Heavenly World
2. The icon is characterized by a reverse perspective, where the vanishing point is located not in the depths of the picture plane, but in the person standing in front of the icon - the idea of pouring the Heavenly World into our earthly world.
3. No external light source. The light comes from faces and figures as a symbol of holiness.
4. Color is not a means of color construction, it has a symbolic function. For example, red can symbolize sacrifice or royal dignity.
5. Icons are characterized by the simultaneity of the image. On the icon of the Transfiguration of the Lord, we see both Christ ascending the mountain with his disciples, and the Lord Transfigured, and the disciples who fell "on their faces" (Matt. 17:6), and they descend from the mountain at the same time.
The static character of an icon is its internal movement, the eternal flight of the soul to God. modern physics defines this state by the category "absolute speed", which is expressed by the value "0". The image in icon painting is meant to be extra-spatial and timeless: in Eternity there is no spatial and temporal remoteness. Time, as the bearer of changes created by God, is inapplicable to God himself: He is eternal, all-encompassing and unchanging. Human time turns out to be something "temporary", transitory. It is like a patch, a "piece" against the background of Eternity, where God realizes his providence.
Iconographic and plot features of the Old Believer icons
First of all, it is necessary to note the features common to all Old Believer icons, which make it possible to separate them (though not always) from works of official church art. Firstly, as is known, one of the most important differences between the Old Believers and the Nikonians was the question of the composition of fingers. The official church in the post-reform period forbade the depiction of two-fingered icons on icons. On the contrary, in the Old Believer fine arts, double-fingering is ubiquitous.
Secondly, the Old Believers and Nikonians differed in the inscription of the abbreviation of the name of Jesus Christ. The Old Believers reject Nikon's innovation - the spelling of the name of Christ as Jesus and, consequently, the inscription on the icons "IIS. XS." The only correct proclaim is the spelling of the name of Christ as Jesus and the abbreviation “IC. XS."
The third feature is the difference between the symbols of the evangelists on the Old Believer and Nikonian icons: the symbol of Mark among the Old Believers is an eagle, and John is a lion, on Orthodox icons of the post-Nikonian period it is the other way around. In addition, the Old Believer icon painters continued, in accordance with the ancient Russian tradition, to depict the evangelists in the form of animals, which was categorically forbidden by the Orthodox Church in 1722. Along with double-fingering, one of the significant disagreements between the Old Believers and the official church was the question of the shape of the cross. For everyone Old Believer icons in the hands of saints, on the domes of churches, only eight-pointed crosses are always depicted. We will never see four-pointed or six-pointed here.
The abundance of marginal inscriptions is a characteristic feature of Old Believer icons. Wooden icons of the Old Believers are usually characterized by dark faces. The Old Believers were also characterized by copper and tin "cast icons". In the 18th century, official Orthodoxy banned the production of such icons.
Old Believer icons also cannot contain images of new saints, canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church after the schism, new images of the Mother of God and new versions of traditional subjects (for example, the Resurrection of Christ is depicted only in the form of the Descent into Hell).
In the icon-painting workshops, the canons and traditions of Old Russian icon-painting, professed by the Old Believers, were sacredly observed, which, in turn, were determined by the circle of Orthodox samples that had developed by mid-seventeenth in. It was in the Old Believer environment that there was a strong focus on ancient samples, most of which have come down to us in later repetitions. To some extent, folk icons also reflect a certain iconographic repertoire. Old Believers of different persuasions treated the icon in different ways. In one sense, different communities (pochinki, villages and villages) had their own ideas about which icons to worship and how.
Considering popular piety, it should be remembered that in reality the religiosity of the Old Believers was very integral, merged with their way of life. An indispensable accessory of any hut of the Old Believers, for example, in the Nizhny Novgorod and Vyatka provinces were icons, as evidenced by expeditionary and archival materials. There were from 5 to 20 images in the house at the same time. It is difficult to determine which icons were more common. It depended on taste and on the circumstances of life at home and, of course, on belonging to a certain sense. In the houses of the Old Believers of the Austrian consent, the icons of the following plots are most common: “The Old Testament Trinity in Genesis” (in two versions, the most common option is “Hospitality of Abraham and Sarah”), “Savior Almighty”, “King King” (“Savior the Great Bishop "), "Image Holy Savior"in a special version - with two (sometimes four) angels holding the ends of the ubrus. Of the Mother of God icons, the Hodegetria of Smolenskaya, the Sign, the Veil, the Three-Handed, the Kazanskaya, the Fire-like, the Burning Bush, and Do not cry for me, Mati, remain especially revered by the local Old Believers. Akathists and cathedrals of miraculous icons of the Theotokos are widely found in homes. On the margins of brownies, as a rule, icons of the Theotokos, an image is given in the growth of selected saints. Particularly noted is the patronal nature of the selection of saints named after family members, with the obligatory inclusion of the Guardian Angel in their number.
From Tue. floor. 19th century in the margins, 6-8 figures of saints are often depicted already. Such icons serve as house iconostases for their owners, in everyday life they are often called that. The name "house iconostasis" was also assigned to icons with cast insets. In such icons, there is always a cross (altarpiece or kiot) in the center, around which cast icons and multi-leaf folds are placed. Casting in combination with painting was preferred by the Old Believers of the chapel. In every house you can find several icons of the Savior, the Mother of God, the image of the most revered saints - St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, mch. John the Warrior, martyr Paraskeva, martyr Catherine and Barbara, as well as menaine icons and twelfth holidays. The Fedoseyevites especially revere Saint Paisios and pray to him for those who died without repentance, but the name of the deceased is not mentioned; they also turn to the holy martyr Uar, they also pray to him when a person died without repentance. In similar cases, they pray to St. Thekla, but only for the repose of women. Among the Pomeranian Old Believers there is an image of John the Theologian with a finger to his mouth (the icon "John the Theologian in silence"). This plot is interpreted by them as evidence of the impossibility of knowing in advance the time of the “end of the world”.
Among the Old Believers, the first Moscow Metropolitan Peter, the mediator between the Mother of God and the Russian people, was especially revered. The Mother of God and Metropolitan Peter were revered as defenders and guardians of true Christian piety. Their images can be found on images with selected saints, in other compositions.
In the houses of the Old Believers is a large number of Virgin icons of the XIX-XX centuries. Prayer texts were also dedicated to the Mother of God - canons, akathists, troparia and services for the Mother of God feasts, which were supplemented by apocryphal tales colored with folklore fiction, legendary fiction, tales of visions. The extremely popular apocrypha "The Virgin's Passage through the Torments" and "The Dream of the Virgin" were found in handwritten Prologues and Triods, kept in the Old Believers' environment.
In the XIX-beginning 20th century among the Old Believers, the icon of the Mother of God of Tikhvin was especially revered as painted by the Apostle Luke and being an assistant in the construction of monasteries, the guardian of true Orthodoxy. Often the image of the Mother of God is accompanied by an ornament of climbing stems, flowers - symbols of the gardens of Eden, which indicates the traditional perception of the Mother of God as the Queen of Heaven of the heavenly abodes of God the Most High. "The Legend of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God", being one of the most famous stories about the movement of Christian shrines to Rus', could not but be in the sphere of attention of the Old Believers. Stories of this kind, created in Rus', received the value historical evidence in favor of the fact that only Russian Orthodoxy preserved the ancient Christian traditions, and the evidence is very important, since the very transfer of shrines in such legends, as a rule, took place miraculously, therefore, by God's providence.
The theme of the continuity of ancient Christianity with Russian Orthodoxy was one of the central ones for the Old Believers, since the idea of such continuity, which distinguished the Russian Church from other Christian churches, and the understanding in connection with this of the need to preserve the “Russian faith” ultimately led to a sharp clash between the Old Believers and official church authorities, who contributed to the established church forms there were many changes that were perceived by the Old Believers as “damage”. The identification of the Tikhvin icon with the icon painted by the Evangelist Luke made it possible to consider the signification of the baby Jesus depicted on it as a paramount argument in favor of antiquity and, therefore, the truth of two-fingeredness. The special role of this evidence was also due to the fact that the icon image could serve as evidence in support of the Old Believer opinion about signage for illiterate people. The official church interpreted the signification of Jesus on the Tikhvin icon as nominative.
In prayer houses and private houses of the "zealots of ancient piety" you can find icons of the Vladimir, Kazan, Iberian, Shuiskaya Mother of God, as well as the "Grieving Mother of God". The Old Believers, honoring the “Grieving Mother of God”, performed irmos to her, calling her in sorrow and as a savior from slander. In the popular mind, the cult of the Mother of God was assigned the first place among the “saving” and “healing” miracles that were expected from the icons of the saints. But the nature of the expected "miracles" in each village could be different. However, the desire to see not the heavenly, but precisely the earthly sojourn of the Mother of God, the inclusion of the icons of the Mother of God in the rhythm of one's life and everyday worries unites the views of different communities and sects among the “zealots of ancient piety”.
On numerous Old Believer icons of the Lord Almighty, the Heavenly King seemed to “replace in the graceless world” the Orthodox Tsar. The prevalence among the people of the iconography of the Almighty is similar to the prevalence in spiritual verses of the name of Christ "King of Heaven". Because the real world perceived as the kingdom of Satan, it was also perceived as a place of torment that required a speedy investigation. Basically, in the Old Believer environment, there are icons of the Lord Almighty, made "in the manner of Rublev." The Savior was depicted in the traditional three-quarter turn, with a two-fingered blessing, holding the opened Gospel with his left hand.
Among the chosen saints, Nicholas the Wonderworker, John the Theologian “in silence”, John the Baptist, the prophet Elijah in the “fiery ascent”, Archangel Michael, presented as the “Terrible Forces Voivode” (a fiery horseman flying on a winged horse) were universally revered. In iconographic terms, there are also a number of special predilections, which include, first of all, group compositions. But, undoubtedly, images of saints of “practical purpose” predominate. On the icons in the next row or next to the image of the saint, you can meet a guardian angel. The theme of the Last Judgment and the end of the world is often raised on the pages of apocryphal legends in handwritten Old Believer books.
In the beginning. XVIII century the official church forbids the image of the Lord of Hosts “in the form of an old man”, as well as the evangelists in the likeness of animals with the inscription of the name of the apostles themselves. Under the ban falls a number of icons, "contrary to nature, history and truth itself." Their list is rather chaotic: along with icons that include fantastic elements (martyr Christopher with a dog's head, Our Lady of Three Hands, the image of the Burning Bush, "the image of the Wisdom of God in the face of a certain girl", "the image of the six-day world creation of God, in which God the Father is written on lying on pillows”, “the image of Hosts in the person of the husband of the aged and only-begotten Son in His womb and between Them the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove”, (that is, the icon “Fatherland”), “Annunciation with God the Father, breathing from the mouth”), are completely prohibited canonical icons (“The image of the Mother of God sick at the Nativity of the Son of God and a woman with Her”, “the image of Florus and Laurus with horses and grooms”).
Appearance in Tue.pol. 17th century in the new iconography of the "Burning Bush", which began to be painted with symbolic and allegorical details, forced the Old Believers to explain this plot more often than others. The “Alphabet of the Burning Bush” gave a popular interpretation of the symbols of the icon, which contained minor variations in different collections. The image of the inner baby in the explanation of the author-compiler symbolized the birth of Christ “From the Father”, “before all the ages of the Mother of God”, while the baby in the arms of the Mother of God “will lead Christmas from the virgin of God the Father”. The three-year age of Christ symbolized the "three-faced deity." In all Old Believer interpretations, one can feel the traditional reliance on Stoglav and the traditions of Moscow antiquity, which they especially revere.
Perspective on painted icons
For many centuries, the icon was considered a primitive image of uneducated icon painters. And only with the discoveries of physics and mathematics of the XX century. began to study the icon as a unique space-time continuum. The theory of reverse, as well as scientific (in contrast to the medieval direct) perspective in general, was substantiated by the Soviet academician B.V. Rauschenbach in 1986 Many theological studies are devoted to the reverse perspective, including Fr. Pavel Florensky.
Direct perspective expresses a subjective view of the world. "Euclidean space", according to Fr. Pavel Florensky, is distinguished by its facelessness and motionless lack of quality. Space, presented in a direct perspective, is not its essence, but the outer shell attributed to space by the fallen human mind, which has lost its integrity.
Reverse perspective depicts the object as a whole, bypassing the "natural" laws of visual perception. Objects appear as they are thought, not seen. Distant objects appear larger, and the invisible edges of the object appear visible. According to St. fathers, such a "smart" vision was characteristic of Adam before the fall: the primordial man immediately penetrated into the essence of things.
In the reverse perspective, as a rule, children draw, who have not yet been "learned" to see the "scientific" perspective.
As a comparison of the two perspectives, I give a drawing depicting the same holiday - "The Nativity of the Mother of God." Fresco by Giotto of the Nativity of Mary of the 14th century, made in direct perspective and the Novgorod icon of the Nativity of the Mother of God of the 15th century. performed in reverse.
Let's consider how the "correct" linear or direct perspective is formed: when constructing a drawing, if not depicted, then at least a horizon line is assumed, to which parallel lines converge. Look sometime at the road going into the distance. At the horizon, its edges will merge at one point. The farther away an object is, the smaller it appears. Indeed, perspective is a powerful tool in depicting three-dimensional objects on a plane. Linear perspective has become one of the foundations of Renaissance art, learning to see objects in perspective is the first step in teaching an artist. We are so accustomed to this method of depicting volume that we consider it the only and, of course, correct. Is such a view correct?
Our eye is so accustomed to the "classical" linear perspective that we do not perceive any other way of conveying volume. Once such an experiment was carried out: the heads of two newborn kittens were fixed so that they could not turn and tilt them. One kitten was placed in an environment of only vertical objects, where not a single line went horizontally or at an angle. The other kitten was brought up in a "horizontal" world and did not know vertical objects. After the kittens were released into a normal room, they simply did not notice objects that lay outside the plane of the world in which they grew up, constantly bumping one into horizontal, the other into vertical objects.
You and I are similar to the same kittens raised in the environment of Western European culture. We do not even notice those conventions that were originally laid down in a direct perspective. A "classic" drawing is like a photograph - it is a momentary glance from one point. Are you used to believing that it is human nature to see the world in a direct linear perspective? You are mistaken even in the fact that a person has two eyes and each of them sees an object from his own angle.
Let's return to our example with the road going into the distance. Someday, do this experiment: look at the road leading to the horizon. Yes, the edges of the road will converge at the horizon, you will see it, but try to look with peripheral (lateral) vision at the roadside to your left and right, next to you a few steps away. If you mentally continue the directions of the sides of the road, then not only will they not converge at the horizon, but, on the contrary, they will diverge. Binocular vision results in reverse perspective vision (close enough to the eyes). How else can you see the reverse perspective? Are you sitting at the table now? The whole table does not fit in your field of vision? Good. Turn your head to the left edge of the table, remember the direction of its side edge. Now turn your head to the right and trace where its right side is directed. Mentally continue them. The larger the table and the closer you are to its surface, the more significant the effect of reverse perspective will be: the table seems to "diverge" in the direction from you, and not "converge" to the horizon. Against the use of direct perspective, as a technique alien to icon painting, P. Florensky spoke out, citing many arguments and reasoning. A reader who is familiar with the use of reverse perspective in icon painting may get the impression that in icon painting (in its traditional technique) only one is always used. Absolutely wrong conclusion. In many images, several plans can be conditionally distinguished and objects of the foreground will be larger relative to objects in the background (although when depicting both, reverse perspective can be used). 
Icon "Trinity" Andrey Rublev 1411. Remember at least the Rublevskaya Trinity with the image of the Mauryan oak, a mountain and an architectural structure in the background. 
Or take a look at a very interesting icon of the Epiphany (Baptism of the Lord), or rather, at the Jordan River, depicted as merging from two streams. The banks of the river converge towards the horizon. In the image of Jordan, a direct linear perspective is clearly used, which in no way spoils the icon, but organically fits into the image.
Let's now look at the scheme for constructing a reverse perspective. It is logical to assume that since the perspective is "reverse", then the principle of its construction is also reversed. The further the object, the larger its image. If in a "classic" drawing parallel lines meet behind the object, near the horizon, then in a drawing with reverse perspective they meet in front of the object, above the image plane. 
Novgorod icon "Fatherland" Take a look at the icon "Fatherland": under the feet of God the Father there is a certain rectangular platform with wheels and wings (this is an image of "thrones" - one of angelic ranks). Try to mentally continue the straight lines that form the side faces of the "platform". Isn't it very similar to the way of constructing a reverse perspective just considered? But pay attention to how the wheels are attached to the throne: they are not subject to either direct or reverse perspective, but are turned to the viewer with the entire plane. Icon painter's oversight or something else?
Such "clumsiness", which cannot be explained even by applying a different perspective, can be found in very many images. Take a look, for example, at the detail of the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker: this is the Gospel that the saint is holding. Nothing seems strange to you? 
The front face of the book is unfolded with its entire plane to the viewer, but all four (!) Side cuts of the book are visible, and each of the faces is given at its own angle, little related to the image of the other faces. Under no one of the points of view you will not be able to see this in life. This means that the icon painter examines objects from more than one point, as if he is examining a three-dimensional object sequentially from different sides and transfers what he sees to the plane of the icon. Before us is not an instant "snapshot", but a kind of expanded "drawing" of the object, giving different types on the same plane. The icon painter shows the nature of the subject, allows the viewer to see what the "classical" drawing would hide from him. For each face, the icon painter chooses his own, the most favorable plane, slightly expanded relative to the one in which the face would be when considering the object as a whole from one of the points of view.
The image of objects simultaneously from different sides is also characteristic of faces. 
Take a look at the image of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker: pay attention to how the image of the three-dimensional face of the saint is "deployed" on the plane. The front and both profiles and the crown are visible at the same time.
Compare at least the arrangement of the ears and, to a lesser extent, the cheeks of the miracle worker: they are shown as if the head of the saint is turned sideways to the plane of the icon. The icon painter allows us to examine the face from all sides, in all its features and subtleties.
What gives the use of reverse perspective in icon painting? Very often one can come across a comparison of an icon with a window "from the world above to the world below". In many ways, the impression of the icon as a window is associated with the use of reverse perspective. Following the "diverging" rays of the eye, it applies a reverse perspective to the entire icon, "expanding" a small image on the icon in breadth. The space of the icon suddenly becomes extraordinarily wide, surrounding the viewer, as if "floating" on him. If we assume the presence of an observer on the reverse side of the icon, behind the plane of the image, then for him the objects depicted in the reverse perspective will be depicted in the straight, "correct" perspective. For an eye accustomed to a rectilinear perspective, the image on the icon seems to be "turned inside out". Maybe this is how the saying appeared that "we do not look at the icon, but the icon looks at us."
Perspective on copper-cast icons
When you hold a small copper-cast icon in your hands, the question involuntarily arises: how did the masters in rather small metal-plastic objects manage not to neglect what, as a rule, is a characteristic decoration of the best examples of pictorial icons - this is an incorrect (reverse, inverted, convex) perspective.
The space in the icon is not of this world, the icon is not only an object, but also, if I may say so, a portal to that sacred, sacred world, and everything is different there, there are their own laws. Houses and towers were sometimes turned inside out to show something hidden behind them. Based on the foregoing, we can conclude that the famous reverse perspective, a form of protest against the "vision of the flesh", is also present on copper-cast icons.
Here are some examples:
1. THE MEETING OF THE LORD - the tower on the left seems quite logical - the view is slightly from below, while the building on the right shows a view of the roof already from above.
2. THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE MOTHER OF GOD - on the right, the building is shown frontally, while the left one is "turned out" for viewing by the inner surface of the roof.
3. THE OLD TESTAMENT TRINITY-like "pranks" with perspective are barely noticeable, as on some large icons with Old Testament Trinity(benches, footrests).
4. MOTHER OF Grieving JOY - The figure of Our Lady of All Who Sorrow Joy is much larger than normal perspective dictates. Perhaps the size of the figure symbolizes the scale of the individual relative to other people.
Written prototypes of copper-cast icons
ARCHANGEL MICHAEL
Archangel Michael is the archangel (in Greek - the supreme commander), the commander of the voivode of angels faithful to God, the victorious enemy of Satan, the conqueror of evil. He is considered the patron saint of warriors fighting for a just cause.
The very name Michael means in Hebrew "who is like God." And this alone speaks of how highly he is revered by the Holy Church. He cast down the devil and all the fallen spirits from Heaven. Archangel Michael did not deprive us and our Fatherland of his intercession when he saved Novgorod the Great from the Tatar Khan Batu in 1239, it was not by chance that Michael was depicted on many military banners in Rus' as the archangel of God's army. For more than a thousand years, Archangel Michael has been the patron saint of the Russian land.
Michael the Archangel - archangel, leader of the heavenly host. His name is found three times in the book of the prophet Daniel, once in the epistle of the Apostle Jude and once in the revelations of St. John.
In the prophet Daniel, he is called one of the first princes and a great prince, standing up for the sons of his people. The Holy Apostle Jude calls him Michael the Archangel. The Revelations describe a battle in heaven in which Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and angels fought against them.
The veneration of the holy archangel Michael dates back to the most ancient times.
Archangel Michael is one of the highest angels, taking the closest part in the destinies of the Church. Holy Scripture teaches us that, in addition to the physical, there is a great spiritual world inhabited by intelligent, kind beings called angels. The word "angel" in Greek means messenger. Holy Scripture calls them so because God often communicates His will to people through them. What exactly is their life in the spiritual world that they inhabit, and what is their activity - we know almost nothing, yes, in essence, we are not able to understand. They live in conditions completely different from our material ones: there time, space and all living conditions have a completely different content.
The prefix "archi" to some angels indicates their higher ministry compared to other angels.
The name Michael in Hebrew means "Who is like God." Holy Scripture, telling about the appearance of angels to various people, calls by its own name only some of them - apparently those who have a special mission in establishing the Kingdom of God on earth. Among them are the archangels Michael and Gabriel, mentioned in the canonical books of Scripture, as well as the archangels Raphael, Uriel, Salafiel, Yehudiel and Barahiel, mentioned in the non-canonical books of Scripture.
Archangel Michael in Scripture is called the "prince", "leader of the host of the Lord" and is depicted as main wrestler against the devil and every lawlessness among men. Hence his ecclesiastical naming "archistrategos", i.e. senior warrior, leader. So, the archangel Michael appeared to Joshua as an assistant during the conquest of the Promised Land by the Israelites. He appeared to the prophet Daniel in the days of the fall of the Babylonian kingdom and the beginning of the creation of the Messianic kingdom. Daniel was predicted about the help of the people of God from the Archangel Michael during the period of the upcoming persecution under the Antichrist. In the book of Revelation, the archangel Michael appears as the main leader in the war against the dragon-devil and other rebellious angels. "And there was a war in Heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought against them, but they did not stand, and there was no place for them in Heaven. And the great dragon was cast down, the ancient serpent, called the devil and Satan" . The Apostle Jude briefly mentions the archangel Michael as an opponent of the devil. (Josh. 5:13; Dan. 10; 12:1; Jude 9; Rev. 12:7-9; Luke 10:18).
In the spirit of Scripture, some Church Fathers see the Archangel Michael as a participant in others important events in the life of the people of God, where, however, he is not called by name. So, for example, he is identified with the mysterious pillar of fire that walked in front of the Israelites during their flight from Egypt and killed the hordes of the pharaoh in the sea. He is also credited with the defeat of the huge Assyrian army that besieged Jerusalem under the prophet Isaiah. (Ex. 33:9, 14:26-28; 2 Kings 19:35).
The Church reveres Archangel Michael as a defender of the faith and a fighter against heresies and all evil. On the icons he is depicted with a fiery sword in his hand, or a spear overthrowing the devil. At the beginning of the 4th century, the Church established the feast of the "Council" (that is, the totality) of holy angels, headed by the Archangel Michael.
On this icon, Archangel Michael is represented not as a warrior, but as a majestic and beautiful prince of angels. In his left hand he holds a sphere with the image of Christ Immanuel, in his right - a rod, indicating his high rank. The cloak and shoes are cinnabar, as the emperors were supposed to, the reddish-brown dalmatic and the belt are decorated with precious stones. The face of the archangel shines, as if engulfed in flames.
THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON
"The Only Begotten Son", a Russian icon, reflecting the peculiarities of the Orthodox worldview in Rus'.
The iconography of the icon is based on the texts of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Apocalypse (Revelation of John the Theologian) and comments of the Church Fathers. The meaning of the images is explained by the inscriptions placed on the margins of the icon. In the center of the composition, in a round halo supported by two angels, the second person of the Trinity is represented - God the Word, the "Only Begotten Son" Jesus Christ with an unrolled scroll in his hand. Above him is God the Father (Sabaoth), receiving the ascending disk. On either side of Him are allegorical images of the Sun and the Moon and two buildings - a white-stone church crowned with a dome (on the left) and an architectural chamber personifying the city (on the right). The entrance to them is guarded by two angels dressed in white robes: the left one is in the priests, the right one is in the courtiers.
In the lower part of the icon, separated from the upper part by the depiction of the scene “Christ in the tomb”, a procession of Death unfolds against the background of hills. Sitting on a white apocalyptic beast, with a quiver and arrows behind her back, Death mows down sinners, whose bodies are mercilessly tormented by animals and birds. The inexorable tread of Death is rewarded by the sword of Christ the warrior sitting on the cross, the instrument of his own death. His image, presented against the backdrop of a dark cave (underworld), dominates the figure of the defeated Satan, chained by the archangel Michael.
The described composition, imbued with the idea of the triumph of life over death, good over evil, was an illustration final act Divine Dispensation - the return of Christ to heaven in the bosom of the father, the reunion of the three hypostases of the Holy Trinity. It is precisely this thought that is expressed in the church hymn sung at the liturgy of the catechumens after the second antiphon: “The only-begotten Son and the word of God, the immortal son, and desirous of our Salvation for the sake of being incarnated from the Holy Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary, immutably incarnated as a man, crucified, Christ God, by death right, One of the Holy Trinity, glorified by the Father and the Holy Spirit, save us. The result of the earthly mission of Christ - his suffering and death on the cross- the acquisition of the Kingdom of Heaven for humanity who perished in Adam and Eve, the symbol of which is the church and city depicted in the upper part of the icon - Heavenly Jerusalem.
HOLY GREAT MARTYR PARASKEVA FRIDAY
The Holy Great Martyr Paraskeva, nicknamed Pyatnitsa, lived in the 3rd century in the Roman Empire, in the city of Iconium. Her parents were Christians. They always especially honored Friday - that day in the week on which our Lord Jesus Christ suffered, and therefore, when their daughter was born on that particular day, they also called her Paraskeva, which means (from Greek) - Friday.
With all her heart, the young Paraskeva loved the purity of a virgin soul, took a vow of virginity and took care of spreading the faith of Christ among the pagans. In the year 300, the commander of the emperor Diocletian came to the city, who was instructed to exterminate the Christians. Paraskeva refused to sacrifice to idols, and for this she was tortured. They hung her on a tree and tormented her body with iron nails, and then, ulcerated to the bone and barely alive, they threw her into prison. God did not leave the holy sufferer and miraculously healed her. The evil tormentor did not understand this miracle and continued to torture Saint Paraskeva, ordering her to be hanged on a tree and burned with torches. Finally, they cut off her head with a sword. Christians buried the body of Saint Paraskeva. From the relics of the Great Martyr, healings were given to the sick.
Among Orthodox Christians, Saint Paraskeva (Friday, or Petka) has been loved and venerated since ancient times. Many pious customs and rituals are connected with her memory. Temples and roadside chapels (Fridays) were dedicated to her; considered her to be the patroness of fields and cattle. On the day of her memory, Russian people brought fruits to the temple for consecration. There was not a single auction in Rus' where there was not a temple or a chapel in honor of Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa. Industrialists, merchants and travelers especially revered the saint. In pre-revolutionary Moscow there were four churches in her honor, including one in Okhotny Ryad.
Since ancient times, in Rus', Saint Paraskeva has been considered a healer of mental and bodily ailments, the keeper of family well-being and happiness. Married girls prayed to her in order to marry for love and as soon as possible. The memory of the Great Martyr Paraskeva-Pyatnitsa is celebrated by the Holy Church on October 28 according to the old, November 10 according to the new style.
Symbols of the Evangelists on copper-cast and hand-painted icons
The symbols of the evangelists are the images of four living beings that the ancient iconographic tradition adopted to the evangelists; as is commonly believed, these symbols are borrowed from the vision of John the Theologian (Rev. 4:7). The symbols reveal various aspects of the redemptive feat and the teachings of the Savior as presented by the evangelists.
Under the Evangelist Matthew, an Angel is depicted as a symbol of the Messianic mission to the world of the Son of God, foretold by the prophets. Evangelist Mark is symbolized by a lion, in commemoration of the power and royal dignity of Christ. Evangelist Luke is depicted with a calf, emphasizing the sacrificial, redemptive ministry of the Savior. The eagle under the Evangelist John depicts the height of the gospel teaching and the divine secrets communicated in it.
On some ancient icons and frescoes, these symbols, having the same meaning, are combined in a different order.
Images of the four evangelists and the creatures symbolizing them in the traditional composition of the murals Orthodox church usually placed on the four sides of the cross-domed vault, on the so-called "sails" that support the dome, inside which the Lord Almighty is usually depicted.
Also, the images of the four evangelists with the four "animals" of the Apocalypse are traditionally placed on the Royal Doors along with the image of the Annunciation.
In the first centuries of Christianity, 4 rivers of paradise served as symbols of the evangelists.
They were replaced in the same period by the symbols of the four animals surrounding the throne of Jehovah, according to the description of the prophet Ezekiel.
The symbols are already attributed to the evangelists by Irenaeus of Lyon; Matthew is a man, Mark is an eagle, Luke is an ox, John is a lion.
Blessed Jerome proposes the distribution of symbols accepted by us at the present time: Matthew is a man, Mark is a lion, Luke is a calf, John is an eagle.
Explanation of symbols in the sense of pointing to the redemption of Jesus Christ, who became man (man), subdued enemies (lion), sacrificed himself for the human race (calf) and ascended into heaven (eagle), does not reach the goal: it does not determine exactly why the symbol of man was adopted by the Evangelist Matthew, the lion by Mark, and so on.
Blessed Jerome's explanation: in the gospel of Matthew the genealogy of Jesus Christ, in the gospel of Mark - the voice of a lion roaring in the wilderness: the voice of one crying in the wilderness ..; The gospel of Luke speaks of St. Zechariah, in the gospel of John about the inaccessible height of the Word. With this last explanation, the explanation of St. Gregory the Dialogist, who, however, admits the possibility of another explanation in the application to Jesus Christ, who took on flesh (man), sacrificed himself (calf), broke the bonds of death (lion) and ascended to heaven (eagle).
Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem: the lion is the strength and leadership of Jesus Christ; calf - the priestly ministry of Jesus Christ; man is a manifestation in the flesh; the eagle is the descending power of the Holy Spirit.
In this diversity, there is also a difference in private opinions. It also occurs in the monuments of fine art - mosaics, frescoes, miniatures. Often all four characters are combined into one group and make up the so-called tetramorph. The ancients refer the words of the liturgy to this tetramorph: “singing (eagle), crying (ox), crying (lion) and speaking (man).
A few examples:
On the left is the Guslitskaya icon of the second half of the 19th century. The figure of the saint in red-olive robes stands out effectively against the golden-ocher background. With his right hand, the apostle touches his lips - a sign of silence (which gave the name to the icon), with his left hand he points to the text of the Gospel of John. On the right is an angel in an octagonal halo, personifying the Holy Spirit, a symbol of wisdom. The symbol of the Evangelist John is the lion.
On the right is a copper-cast icon of the 18th century. Evangelist John is depicted as an eagle.
Left - Icon from the chapel of the Archangel Michael (v. Lelikozero) Last third of the 17th century. “The Savior in the Force” is given symbolically, as if against the backdrop of the universe: a blue-green oval means the sky with heavenly forces - angels; a large red square - the earth with four corners, the cardinal points: East, West, North and South. The symbols of the Evangelists are painted on the corners: the angel corresponds to Matthew, the eagle to John, the lion to Mark, the calf to Luke. Similar compositions were in use in Rus' in that era.
On the right is a rare copper-cast fold of the 16th century. The heading and the left wing are lost.
On the left is an icon from the first half of the 17th century. The image of the “Burning Bush” is based on the biblical story about the appearance of a burning but not burning bush (bush) to the prophet Moses on Mount Horeb (Sinai), interpreted by theologians as a prototype of the Mother of God.
The image has been known since the early centuries of Christianity. In Russian icon painting, a complex symbolic and allegorical composition arose in the middle of the 16th century - with a half-length image of the Mother of God with the Christ Child in bishop's vestments. Symbolic images are placed on the chest of the Most Pure One: a ladder (the vision by the holy Patriarch Jacob of a ladder, “established on earth and reaching heaven on top,” as a prototype of the Mother of God) and chambers (house).
The composition of the icon is formed by two four-pointed stars - green and red (the natural color of the bush and the color of the flame that enveloped it), in the center of which in the medallion is the Mother of God with the Christ Child in bishop's vestments. In the rays of blue - the service of the angels of the Mother of God and the worship of the heavenly forces to the miraculous birth of God from the Virgin. In the fiery red rays, the symbols of the holy evangelists mentioned in the Apocalypse are usually depicted: Angel (Matthew), Eagle (John), Taurus (Luke) and Leo (Mark).
Around the stars in two-petal clouds are the angels-spirits of Wisdom, Reason, Fear and Piety; Archangels: Gabriel with a branch of the Annunciation, Michael with a rod, Raphael with an alabaster vessel, Uriel with a fiery sword, Selaphiel with a censer, Barahiel with a bunch of grapes - a symbol of the Blood of the Savior.
Above - the Old Denmi, below - Jesse (or the tree of Jesse - as the genealogy of Jesus Christ).
In the corners of the composition - visions of the prophets: in the upper left - to Moses - the Burning Bush in the form of Our Lady of the Sign in a burning bush, in the right upper corner- Isaiah - Seraphim with burning coal in tongs, below, on the left - Ezekiel's vision of the closed gates, on the right - Jacob - ladders with angels.
The Mother of God gathered around the Eternal Child the whole world - the forces of the earth and Heaven. It is precisely such, gathered together, that God conceived the Universe in His Wisdom, it is precisely by her that the chaotic, centrifugal forces of death and decay must be defeated ...
On the right is a copper-cast icon in multicolor enamels of the 19th century.
On the left is a hand-painted icon of the 17th century with a basmen frame. On the left is a modern copper-cast icon "John the Theologian in Silence", which can be purchased in our online store.
Abbreviations on copper-cast and inscribed crosses, icons, folds
SSSS- Create a net for Satan.
SSSS- With a word, he saves those who glorify Him.
XXXX- Christ's banners - praise to Christians.
CCCC- King, King of heaven, King of the earth, King of the underworld.
PPPP- I sing, I read, I worship the foot.
KR SL, KR GLORY, KR GLORY King of Glory
INCI, IN, INCI Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews
BG God
IS XC, IIS XC, II X, IS XC, IS XC Jesus Christ
K, KP, COPY, COPY copy
T, TR, TRO, CANE Cane
SN BZHI, SN BZHIY Son of God
NIKA Winner
ML Place Execution
RB Heaven be
GG Mount Calvary
GA Head of Adam (Old Slav. Head of Adaml)
DG SAVA Lord of Hosts
KHVV The cross is the guardian of the whole universe
CCC The cross is the beauty of the church
HLC The cross is a true affirmation
KCD The cross is the king's power
CAS Cross - glory angel
CBY The cross is a devil's ulcer
KTPV We worship your cross, lord
BBBB The scourge of God beats demons
VVVV All faithful return to paradise, Faith proclaims to the whole universe.
DDDD The tree is good, annoyance to the devil, The tree bestows ancient heritage.
IVTS And we praise your Resurrection
R.R.R.R.- For the sake of the spoken family.
O.O.K.Ts.E.- The cross was received from God by Empress Helena.
H.H.E.H.- A person who honors him honestly.
S.V.V.N.- Keep all the weight on the tree.
K.K.K.K.- Cross fortress Constantine to faith.
C.B.P.- The Eternal God King.
O.M.O.- Weapons to overcome the world.
M.M.M.M.K.V.- A motherly prayer to the mercy of the Lord can do much more.
P.P.P.- Sing, read, worship.
P.P.P.P.- Gives paki according to the family to the worshipers. I sing, I read, I worship movingly.
D.P.D.N.I.P.C.V.N.P.- Today, a great tree has appeared to us, because the eternal king is nailed on it.
N.N.N.N.- Nights of ignorance need a dethroner.
O.O.O.O.- The finder is found, having found Helen from God. The weapon of overcoming protects the betrothals.
C.C.C.C.- The royal flower of the church is in bloom.
H.H.H.H.- An honest honor to a reverent person.
CRUCIFICATION GD NSHGO ISA HRT- THE CRUCIFICATION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
WE WORSHIP YOUR KRTU VLKO AND STAY AROUND YOUR SVM- WE WORSHIP YOUR CROSS LORD AND WE GLORY YOUR HOLY RESURRECTION
I believe in one God, the Almighty Father, the Creator of heaven and earth, of everything visible and invisible.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
GDIICE
HRTE
SON
GOD BLESS
JOSTI AND SAVE
SILO
UKRS
TAZH
YVON
OSNA
GOTH Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, bless and sanctify and save me by the power of Your Life-giving Cross
DAVO
SCRE
SNOWBOGI
WILL BREAK
IN TIME
IGO
IDAB
EZHA
ТЪ
Let God arise, and let His enemies scatter, and let them flee from His face...
Used materials from the site http://mednolit.ru
At a time when society put Christian values at the forefront, the language of the canonical icon was understandable to every person familiar with the Holy Scriptures. Starting from the 18th century, in addition to the icons of the Old Russian and Byzantine schools, icons of academic writing began to appear in Russia, which in essence were pictorial paintings on biblical themes. This style of writing came from the West in the post-Petrine period. Since then, many icons of Western writing have become revered in Orthodoxy. But most still remained painting. Let's define what an icon is and how it differs from a painting on a religious theme.
Definition
Icon- this is a Divine revelation embodied on a canvas or board in the language of colors and lines. The sacred image is out of time and is a reflection of otherness in the real world.
Painting on a religious theme- a work of art, which is the embodiment of the creative imagination of the master and conveys his attitude. The picture corresponds to the spirit of the time in which it was written. A portrait is a kind of painting, so we will use the general term "painting".
Comparison
Theological differences
Emotionality. Both the writing of an icon and the creation of a painting proceed according to the principle of expressing the general through the particular.
The presence of the master is always felt in the picture, his individuality as a person and as an artist. The transfer of their feelings and emotions to them occurs at the spiritual level.
The icon painter's hand is impassive. Much in the life of the Church is devoid of external personal emotions. The transmission of iconographic symbols takes place at a higher, spiritual level.
Target. The picture is a means of communication at the level of feelings of the contemplator of the image with its author, experiences and ideas of the master.
The icon serves the purpose of communication of a believer with God.
Stylistic differences
The picture is an illustration of a biblical event. It is written in the manner of secular painting, is not regulated by anything and is limited only by the imagination of the artist.
The icon does not represent anything. She is an intermediary between the real, tangible world, and the world that is inaccessible to touch and can only be comprehended by faith. Her writing is strictly regulated by the canon, which does not allow the image to descend to the level of ordinary secular painting.
Reality and conditionality of the image. The icon is characterized by the conventionality of the image. That is, it is not the object itself that is depicted, but the idea that it carries. Everything is subordinated to the goal of revealing the inner meaning. It is from here that the deformed (elongated) figures of saints, which symbolize the transformation of the earthly flesh in the heavenly world, hard graphic breaks in the lines of clothing, contrasting with the soft image of faces.
The picture is characterized by the reality of the image, emphasized pomp and decorativeness, admiring the beauty and regularity of forms. The lines of the clothes are soft and smooth, in harmony with the real image of the faces.
The principle of the image of space. The picture is characterized by a direct perspective, which is well explained by the image of the railway track - parallel lines near the horizon converge at one point.
The icon is characterized by the principle of reverse perspective: the point of convergence is the person himself standing in front of the image. This is a symbol of the fact that everything pours out to us from there, from the higher world. That is, parallel lines in the depths of the icon's space are expanding.
But there is no space as such on the icon. Both nearby objects and distant ones are of prime importance. In the picture, objects of the foreground and background are strictly distinguished.
Light source. The light on the icon, as it were, comes from the image itself, as a symbol of holiness. There are no shadows falling from objects. In the picture, the source of light is external, as if sent from outside to a person for his holiness.
Nimbus - the most important feature of sacred Christian images. They symbolize the holiness and fullness of the Divine light. On the icons, the environment is one with the image of the saint. In the paintings of the divine theme, the halo is above the head of the saint, as a symbol of a reward sent from above.
Color. When writing an icon, color has a symbolic meaning. For the picture, the color scheme is also symbolic, but the color scheme of the canvas, subject to the laws of painting, also matters.
Image simultaneity. The icon is characterized by the principle of the absence of time-spatial frames. Several events distant in time are depicted on the icon in a compositional unity. This technique corresponds to the Christian concept that God has one day as a thousand, and a thousand days as one. The picture depicts an event limited by time and space.
Findings site
- The icon is the reality of the spiritual world, it is divinely inspired and symbolic, it is characterized by the conventionality of the image. A picture is the reality of the material world, it has its own author, its image corresponds to a person's ideas about real objects.
- The picture is a milestone on the path of the aesthetic growth of the individual. The icon is a milestone on the path of salvation.
- An icon is always a sacred thing; we stand before it in prayer. We contemplate the picture, admiring the talent of the author.
- The picture has authorship, but the name of the icon painter is hidden.
God is always great, He is always near. The icon seeks to convey this truthful and simple reality to us. Therefore, in whatever technique it is written, it will remain sacred if the image on it corresponds to the prototype.