Russian double-sided icon of the 18th century

Russian double-sided icon of the 18th century.
"Saint Nicholas and the Virgin".
Tempera on panel. Free-standing.
Mounted on a later profiled wood base.
With crackles, old restorations and retouches.
Measurements: 39,8 x 34,4 x 3,5 cm; 43 x 40 x 14 cm (including base).
This icon represents, on one side, St. Nicholas of Bari and, on the other side, the Virgin. It is an icon designed to be exhibited on both sides, possibly in a procession or parade.
Icons cannot be compared to other works of art in the usual sense of the word. Icons are not paintings. Paintings, with their features and coloring, speak of men and events of concrete reality. Icons, on the other hand, do not represent, but constitute in themselves another world. And they do so 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 the icons there are no shadows, because in the kingdom of God everything is filled with light. In them there is also no usual space, just as there are no conventional events. The icon is an open window to a world of another nature, but this window opens only for those who possess spiritual vision.