Icon - from the Greek "image", "image" - an artistic image of a holy man, an angel, an incarnate God (Jesus Christ). Sometimes icons depict people who are not recognized as saints or have no direct relation to Christianity at all: friends and relatives who accompanied the saint’s life, tormentors, emperors, and so on. Ordinary people differ from the saints by the lack of a halo - a golden circle above their heads.
Instruction manual
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Some canons used in traditional icon painting help identify the icon. The first canon is the absence of an author’s signature on the icon. This tradition takes its roots from the first centuries of Christianity, when artists shied away from attribution for fear of death. Later, when Christianity became the state religion of Byzantium, authorship was not indicated either: the artist created an icon for God and the emperor, and not for his own glory. Therefore, only a few mentions of some icon painters were preserved.
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The name of the author is hushed up, but the name of the saint must be indicated. This canon is not as old as the anonymity of the icons, but you can determine its name by the inscription next to the face (silhouette of the saint). As a rule, the name is written in Church Slavonic, Ancient Greek or another language that is close to the specifics of the culture of a country in which the icon painter lives and works.
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Iconography has developed color symbolism. Purple, crimson, is a symbol of royal power: God in heaven and the emperor on earth. The emperor signed in purple ink and sat on the purple throne, wore purple clothes and boots. The leather or wood bindings of the gospel in the temples were covered with purple cloth. With this color they write the clothes of the Virgin Mary. Red is the color of warmth, love, life, life-giving energy, blood, resurrection. The robes of the martyrs and the wings of the seraphim were depicted in red.
White color is a symbol of Divine light, purity, holiness and simplicity. The robes of this color depicted saints and the righteous, the shroud of infants, the souls of dead people and angels.
Blue and blue colors symbolize the sky and the Virgin, combining in itself the heavenly and earthly principles.
Green color - grass, leaves, youth, hope, flowering. Often used in Christmas scenes, in the clothes of monks and young men (the great martyr Panteleimon, who died young, was depicted in red and green robes).
