Walking into the first room of the exhibition, you meet some old friends from Kiev: mosaic icons that were taken from churches in Kiev. I think, I saw the missing piece of the icon that was rescued from Stalin's destruction of Michalska church and placed in the Sofievska church.... the labels only said "Kiev" and neither our guide nore the wtachdogs sitting in the room knew any details.
So, the first icons date back to the Kievan Rus, the time of Christianisation in the 10th century. The first artists came from the Byzantine Empire (Turkey, Greece). The colour "gold" always symbolizes the divine, it is used in the clothes and the hair of the saints and of Jesus and also used as background colour when the topic of the painting calls for it.
The eyes are never symmetrical.
Icons are a window to the divine world, but only in one direction. Hence, the perspective of icons is reversed. God is looking at us. We are used to seeing the items in the background being smaller than the ones in front. In icon-painting, the further something is, the bigger it appears. The lines don't converge against a vanishing point in the back, but in front of the painting, almost on the tip of the nose of the spectator. But it is also a possibility, that the painters simply didn't know any better.
How to recognize Saint Nicolas: he is always bald, has a beard, shoulders covered by a white scarf with black crosses, he makes the orthodox gesture for blessing with one hand and holds the bible in the other hand.
He became bald, because he pondered very long over the question how to explain trinity to the believers, that he lost his hair over this question.
By the way, when you see Peter and Paul together: Paul is always the bald one, because he was more inclined to philosophical questions and to reading books than the more practical Petrus...... Peter also often carries a key and wears a yellow coat.
In orthodox paintings, the suffering of Christ is not as much a topic as it is in other parts of christianity. The orthodox perspective is more to the divine nature of Jesus, and not so much onto his human sufferings.
Some "photos" of Jesus were taken as follows: Jesus put a cloth on his face, an imprint appeared and he sent it to king Abgar who was ailing and could not come to see Jesus himself. Some theories say that it is the same thing as the shroud of Turin (that, as we know now, dates from the middle ages). However the face came onto the cloth, it was called "made without human hands" (не-руко-творный) and many icon-painters took it as a model. These Jesus-portraits often have a 3-parted beard and you can recognize them easily.
In orthodox tradition, mount Golgatha (where Jesus was crucified) is Adam's tomb, this is why often a skull is depicted underneath the cross.
The orthodox cross has two more beams than the other christian crosses. The upper short beam stands for the sign that was placed above Jesus' head with the inscription INRI. The large beam symbolizes the arms. The short and inclined beam at the bottom symbolizes a footrest that was most probably used during crucifications and it also symbolizes the two men that were crucified alongside Jesus: one went to heaven, the other one to hell.
The two archangels Michael (boss of the heavenly army) and Gabriel (messenger of God) are always easy to identify: Michael wears a red coat (like blood) and Michael wears a blue coat (like the air through which he flies when he delivers messages). Little problem, though: sometimes, when it is really cold, Michael helps out with his red coat......
On August 15th, the orthodox celebrate "the feast of the dormition" which means the death of Mary, Jesus' mother. On icons of dormition, Jesus is always depicted behind Mary, holding her soul in the shape of a baby. 3 archbishops had a vision of Mary's soul being taken by Jesus when it happenend and they were at three different locations at that moment. They are therefore depicted as witnesses.
The 12 disciples are also always shwon, eventhough they could not possibly have been there.
And Mary's (red) shoes are always in front of her bed.
Icons can be dated based on the position of the fingers when bestowing a blessing. Now the priest does it in a way that the greek letters for Jesus' name are formed. Before a concile in the 17th century, the position of the fingers was different: three fingers meant "Trinity" and two fingers meant "God and man".
4 different types of Mary-icons: tenderly mother (cheek to cheek with Jesus), orante (full body picture, praying posture), sign (half body, praying posture), Hodiguitra (showing Jesus to the spectator).
red pigments are often from Novgorod
green pigments are often from Pskov
In the middle of the 5th register (row counted from the bottom) of the iconostasis, god is often depicted. The other icons in this row are patriarchs.
Some icons are painted biographies of saintes (agéographie). One example is icon number 117.
Rublov painted number 114, his famous icon called "Trinity".
Abraham and Sarah lived along a much-travelled pilgrim-route and always offered food to the ones who would stop by. Three of these pilgrims were actually heavenly messengers and anounced the coming birth of their son Isaac to them. These three messengers have later been re-interpreted as Trinity.
One of the most important icons for the Russian orthodoc church has been copied many times and is called Theotokos of Vladimir. It depicts Jesus and his mother in a very special position: cheek to cheek, but she is looking at the spectator. He is tenderly putting his hand around her neck and it comes back out on her left cheek.
This icon is on display in the church incorporated into the Tretiakov gallery, so that it can be prayed to by believers at certain times and can easily be admired by museum visitors (access from inside the museum from 'til 4pm).
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