Russian icons

[1] Initially following Byzantine artistic standards, these icons were integral to religious practices and cultural traditions in Russia.

Over time, Russian iconography evolved, incorporating local styles and elements that expanded its visual and symbolic vocabulary.

The traditionalists, the persecuted "Old Ritualists" or "Old Believers", continued the traditional stylization of icons, while the State Church modified its practice.

[3] Many religious homes in Russia have icons hanging on the wall in the krasny ugol, the "red" or "beautiful" corner.

[4] Some of the most venerated but whole icons considered to be products of miraculous thaumaturge are those known by the name of the town associated with them, such as the Vladimir, the Smolensk, the Kazan and the Częstochowa images, all of the Virgin Mary, usually referred to by Orthodox Christians as the Theotokos, the Birth-Giver of God.

The preeminent Russian icon painter was Andrei Rublev (1360 – early 15th century), who was "glorified" (officially recognized as a saint) by the Moscow Patriarchate in 1988.

Icon painting was and is a conservative art, in many cases considered a craft, in which the painter is essentially merely a tool for replication.

During the Soviet era in Russia, former village icon painters in Palekh, Mstyora, and Kholuy transferred their techniques to lacquerware, which they decorated with ornate depictions of Russian fairy tales and other non-religious scenes.

Many Russian icons were destroyed, or sold abroad, by agents of the Soviet government; some were hidden to avoid destruction, or were smuggled out of the country.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the market for icons expanded beyond Orthodox believers to include those collecting them as examples of Russian traditional art and culture.

Russian icons may also incorporate elaborate tin, bronze or silver exterior facades that are usually highly embellished and often multi-dimensional.

Since the 1990s, numerous late 19th- and early 20th-century icons have been artificially aged, then purported to unwitting buyers and collectors as being older than they really are.

[7] I. K. I︠A︡zykova; Grenier, Paul (2010), Hidden and triumphant the underground struggle to save Russian iconography, Brewster, Mass Paraclete Press, ISBN 978-1-55725-564-8