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Icons are built of symbols like the letters of the alphabet, with which
holy text can be written. Only those who know the 'letters' of this alphabet
can read and understand the text.
A collection of all canonical icons manifests in itself the richness of
the Orthodox teaching. If a pagan comes to you saying: 'Show me your faith',
take him to church and put him in front of various kinds of holy images'.
An icon is a graphic exposition of the Holy Tradition. To keep it unchanged
icon prototypes and standards were created and passed on from artist to
artist and from generation to generation. When they were reproduced, the
faces of the canonized saints lost their individual features and turned
into symbols – signs of celestial spirituality (the Russian word "lizo"
- face - is replaced by the more solemn word "lik" when applied
to icons. - translator's note).
The decisions of the VII Ecumenical Council were addressed to the whole
Christian world. But the Franks' King Charles, the future Emperor Charles
the Great, the Byzantine Emperor's rival in the medieval world, did not
accept the Council's decisions – it was a logical consequence of the West's
confrontation with the East.
As a response to the VII Council decisions Karolyngs' books were made
up in 790-794 on Charles' initiative. The books stated that the object
of worship is God alone but by no means icons. Icons can be used only
to decorate churches and for catechization purposes. For this reason no
canonization of images was accepted.
Thus the Western Church did not have iconographic schemes and this enabled
Western European artists to give their own interpretation of the Old Testament
and Christian subjects. Thus in religious art they gradually deviated
from icon-painting and simply created pictures using religious themes.
The significance of this phenomenon cannot be overestimated. An artist's
work is always a search. And the search bore its fruit: linear perspective
, the means to convey motion and the properties of air and many other
things were discovered.
People who came to church services looked at what we would call icons,
saw the discoveries and studied constantly, unaware of the fact that they
were studying, – because sciences had not separated from arts at that
time yet and lots of discoveries in painting were the roots of new sciences.
However, in Byzantium and other Orthodox countries the situation with
arts was quite different. Canonized iconography and the dogmas of the
Orthodox faith formed a coordinate system showing people the true way
through the ups and downs of life. So an icon-painter did not have to
search for new artistic means as there already existed the methods of
creating images adequate to the faith.
By the beginning of the second millennium Western and Eastern Europe had
taken separate roads in culture, arts and science.
The crystallized set of canon images and firm iconographic schemes formed
the Orthodox icon-painting world. Its masterpieces strengthen and purify
the faith. Icon-painting as an art was passed from Byzantium to Old Rus
in an established shape.
Icon-painting found its new motherland in Rus. Russian artists did not
just copy the great Greek arts traditions but enriched them. They breathed
into icon-painting new aesthetics and the energy of a young nation which
had just emerged on the world history scene. Unlike the heavy static Byzantine
images Russian icons shone with new bright clear colours, with fine lines
full of strength and motion.
Authors of Old Russian icons are for the most part unknown. Icons, as
well as prayers, are the result of collective creative effort, they were
edited thoroughly by many generations. It resembles the process of faceting
a precious stone. Creating an icon the artist but reproduces the original
that goes back to the Prototype. But a gifted master could express himself
too – in most subtle nuances. Such an icon, being in fact a prayer, addressed
God personally and directly and did not need the name of the person who
created it. Old Rus' best icons are filled with deep spiritual meaning
and, despite identical iconography of a subject, they are surprisingly
different – as different as the people who created them.
 The
canonization of iconography had a two-fold effect: on the one hand, it
limited the artist's personal creative freedom, but on the other hand,
it was the fruit of the intellectual and spiritual effort of the previous
generations, embodying their rich icon-painting experience. Creating icons
was collective work, so every artist contributed his mite to this great
effort.
Church art can be properly viewed only from within church life; understanding
it is impossible without knowing the Orthodox teaching. Icons and church
singing cannot be perceived just from the aesthetic point of view. They
are somehow different from art. Therefore it is clear why Russian Orthodox
Church insists on being given back the miracle-working icons kept in museums.
In a museum an icon is not altogether an icon. It needs the whole order
of church life: a temple, liturgy, a place among other icons, and what
is the most important – the eyes of people for whom it is a window facing
the other reality, – that of the divine world.
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