Double Festivity Icon, ca. 1830.
"Calendar with scenes from the life of Christ."
Tempera and gold on wood.
In good condition.
Measurements: 53.5 x 46.5 x 3.5 cm.
Russian icon structured into numerous squares, each of which shows a scene from the life of Jesus, from the Birth to the Resurrection. Cyrillic legends complement the images. Stylistically, one can appreciate the extreme refinement achieved by Russian icons, which in the 19th century continued to respect certain orthodox precepts, but the figures gained in stylization and their features became softer. Vivid pigments attend to the symbolic use of color, and a sinuous line of synthetic stroke lengthens the canons. This typology responds to the calendar of festivities.
Icons cannot be compared with other works of art in the usual sense of this word. They are not paintings, because they do not reproduce motifs from reality; They do not represent, but constitute in themselves another world. And they do it with special means of representation, developed over the centuries. In them, color plays a significant role, that of a symbolic language that must express not the color of things, but their luminosity, a light that comes from beyond the physical world. The golden spaces of the icons embody this non-terrestrial light, and the golden background symbolizes the space that is “not of this world.” In icons there is no usual space, nor do conventional events exist. The icon is a window open to a world of another nature, but this window opens only to those who possess spiritual vision.