19th century Russian icon.
"God the Father and the twelve apostles".
Paint and gold leaf on wood.
Some lack of polychromy.
Measurements: 35 x 31 x 3 cm.
Twelve characters, who probably identify the twelve apostles, are distributed in perfect symmetry on each side of the image of God the Father surrounded by clouds. The figures, with slender canons, hold their hands to their chests and hold the Scriptures in the other hand. They wear sumptuous robes, draped with fine broken folds, and golden haloes illuminate their faces. In iconography and style they faithfully follow orthodox precepts. A legend inscribed on each nimbus identifies the saints. Intense reds with carmine and silver highlights combine with cobalt blues and golds.
The icons cannot be compared to other works of art in the usual sense of the word. Icons are not paintings, but are considered to be the real presence of the person depicted. Paintings, with their features and colouring, speak of people and events in 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, 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. The golden spaces of the icons embody this unearthly light, and the golden background symbolises the space that is "not of this world". In the icons there are no shadows, because in the kingdom of God everything is full of light. There is no usual space in them either, 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.