The Artistic Characteristics of Russian Icons

Icon painters never wanted copy nature or to show pictures of the world as it seems to us.  They wanted to use ideas about the physical world to display spiritual truths.

• Most icons show only one or two persons.  Landscaping and background people were considered a distraction from the main idea(s).
• Reversible perspective means that the lines of the painting converge (come together) toward the viewer, not toward some point in the painting.  The emphasis is on the experience the viewer has in meditating on the icon.
• Icons do not show shadows because they do not show natural lighting.  The only light shown in icons is spiritual power.  Spiritual power comes from inside a person.  The light from spiritual power was shown by halos and gold paint.
• Icons seem flat and unreal to Western eyes because they do not try to show depth.  Icons are supposed to be unrealistic because they present a spiritual world.
• Figures in icons always face front to emphasize their presence. They make the strongest impact on the viewer this way.
• Facial expressions do not show much about the feelings and attitudes of their figures.  Prayer, reverence, silence, obedience, preaching, fear, blame, surprise, lamentation, are shown just as much (or more) by the positions of the hands and of the heads.
• Saints portrayed in icons have large, almond-shaped eyes, enlarged ears, long thin noses, and small mouths.  These differences in size were supposed to show that their senses had been purified and made holy.
  

This icon, showing Jesus as the Only begotten Son of the Father and the Word of God (a reference to the start of John's gospel, which calls Jesus the logos or word as represented by the scroll), uses symbols to show that all creation reacts and responds to the divine presence.  The heavens (angels, the sun, and the moon), the earth (two buildings, rocky ground, and the presence of Jesus in his earthly body standing with his mother), and under the earth (hell--demons and human souls condemned to eternal suffering) are all present.

Symbolism:

• Religious symbols from the Bible or from religious tradition were often used.  For example, a stole could symbolize the lost sheep carried by the Good Shepherd.  A stole is a strip of cloth draped over the neck and hanging down the right and left sides of the chest.   (The Good Shepherd is a character in one of Jesus’ stories.  The Good Shepherd loves his sheep like God the Father loves his children.)  Or three rays of light could represent the Trinity (three persons in one God).

• Architecture could also be used symbolically.  For example:
•  A roof with a cupola (round dome) can symbolize a church.
• A single can symbolize an entire building.
• A building can symbolize a city.
• Drapery (large curtains) hanging from one wall to another stands for the inside of a building.
  
• Colors:
• Gold – holiness, divine presence
• Red (scarlet) – life or blood.  It symbolizes Jesus’ suffering and death on a cross as well as his victory over death in his resurrection.
• White – purity, holiness, simplicity
• Blue (sky blue) – the sky, eternity.  Also associated with Mary, Jesus’ mother.
• Green – earth, the renewable cycle of Nature. 
•  Brown – bare earth, ashes, all that dies
• Black – death, eternal damnation (Hell).  Also associated with mystery.
• Grey – a mixture of black and white that symbolizes confusion and emptiness.  It was never used in icons.