Russian icon of the 19th century.

Russian icon of the 19th century.
“Virgin and Saints.”
Egg tempera on wood.
It has chipping, cracking and some retouching.
Measurements: 35 x 30 x 2.8 cm.
Russian icon compartmentalized into five squares, presided over by the Virgin in mandorla and, in the upper register, the Virgin inscribed with her as Hodigitria, “she who shows the way.” Her fine-fingered right hand points to the Baby Jesus, showing him to the viewer. The sumptuous clothing, carnations and modeling receive careful formal and chromatic treatment. Several saints flank the Marian figure.
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.