19th century Russian icon

19th century Russian icon.
"Crucifixion".
Polychrome wood and bronze.
Bronze cross with enamels.
Measurements: 45 x 40 cm.
Scene of the crucifixion with the representation of the expiring Christ in bronze. Of schematic canon, it is housed in an orthodox cross whose triple transversal arm includes the representation of the city of Jerusalem, in the lower part, and two archangels in the upper part. The bottom of the cross is covered with enamel. The saints painted on the wood are arranged symmetrically around the cross. Saint John and the Virgin preside over the scene, as is usual in Passion iconography. The figure is identified in each nimbus. The city is again depicted in the background. The gold leaf is reduced to the nimbuses, while the clothing and the houses are painted with brilliant pigments with contrasting effects. Two Marian dedications preside over the upper part.
The icons cannot be compared to other works of art in the usual sense of the 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 so with special means of representation, developed over the centuries. In them, colour plays a significant role, that of a symbolic language that must express not the colour of things, but their luminosity, a light that comes from beyond the physical world.