Russian icon, 19th century

Russian icon, 19th century
"Liturgical calendar".
Tempera on wood.
It presents craquelures and old retouches.
Measurements: 31 x 26.5 x 3 cm.
Russian icon structured in thirteen squares, each of which depicts a scene from the life of Jesus, with representations of the Holy Sepulchre and the Resurrection in the centre, with Christ in mandorla. The various passages depicted mark the most important liturgical feasts... Legends in Cyrillic complement the images. Stylistically, the extreme refinement achieved by Russian icons can be seen, which in the 19th century continued to respect certain Orthodox precepts, but the figures became more stylised and their features softened. Vivid pigments are used for the symbolic use of colour, and a sinuous line with a synthetic stroke lengthens the canons.
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.