How to read icons correctly. Gestures of the saints

Until the 16th century, even illiterate people were able to “read” icons, and one icon sometimes replaced dozens of sermons.

Upwards

Icons should be read from the bottom up, as if rising from the earthly world to the heavenly. Saints are often depicted standing on the ground, but reaching for the sky - such was, metaphorically speaking, their life path. Sometimes at the bottom of the icon there are important attributes, details of the life of the saints, which are not evident if the image is not viewed sequentially. In ancient icons, even the board of the frame plays a role; it is the boundary between our world and the spiritual world represented in the icon. In the Syrian and Egyptian deserts, it was not so easy to get a tree, and even more so a linden - also a symbolic plant.
If you look closely at the ancient icons, the line between the frame and the image is usually written in color - most often red. This border is called “husk” (like a thin film in seeds that “husk”), it symbolizes the border between the lower and upper worlds, and it is red because this border, this transition, was given by blood ...

Attention to the background

The background on the icon plays an important role, like everything else - they say that not a single millimeter of the icon is written meaninglessly, just like that. In the most ancient times of Christianity, the background of icons was painted in detail to show the reality of the events that took place on them. Later, a reminder of reality will become less important for the icon. Much more often now we meet a solid background: gold or white. These two colors are the "highest" in the Byzantine tradition. White is the color of paradise, and the icons that have it as a background clearly show the person standing in front of them that the action takes place in paradise. Golden color - the color of holiness and a special, immaterial radiance. In addition, gold does not change color, it is permanent and is associated with eternity. With gold tested in the furnace, Scripture compares the martyrs who suffered for Christ.
The icons of the saints sometimes depict the places of their life and deeds. So, for example, the Cathedral of the Kiev-Pechersk Saints is painted against the backdrop of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra; Mary of Egypt is depicted against the backdrop of the desert; Blessed Xenia - against the backdrop of St. Petersburg and the temple at the Smolensk cemetery. There is a well-known icon of John of Shanghai, it depicts a pavement and a taxi - that among which this saint lived.

Symbolic colors

We have already talked about the white and gold colors on the icon. But other colors also have their own symbolic meaning, and it is probably interesting to know that there is a color that you will not find on canonical icons. This color is grey, a color obtained by mixing white and black. In the spiritual world, heaven and hell, holiness and sin, good and evil do not mix, and darkness cannot embrace light. Therefore, for icon painters who treat color as an image endowed with meaning and never choose color arbitrarily, “for beauty”, gray is not needed.
Red color has several meanings at once. It is the color of blood, the color of Christ's sacrifice. Therefore, the people depicted on the icon in red clothes are martyrs. The wings of the archangels-seraphs close to the throne of God shine with red heavenly fire. But red is also a symbol of the Resurrection, the victory of life over death. There are even icons with a red background - a sign of the triumph of eternal life. The red background always fills the icon with an Easter sound.
Blue and blue colors correspond with the sky, other, eternal world and wisdom. This is the color of the Mother of God, who combined both the earthly and the heavenly. So by the blue domes you can always recognize the Mother of God Church.

Attribute interpretation

Even the smallest attributes on icons give us "keys" to their understanding. What are the most common attributes of saints on icons? Crosses in the hands of saints usually mean that this person was martyred for his faith.
Often, something for which they became famous is given into the hands of the saints on the icon. For example, on the palm of Sergius of Radonezh they write the monastery founded by him. Saint Panteleimon is holding a medicine box. Saints and evangelists on icons hold the Gospel. Reverends - a rosary, like Seraphim of Sarov, or scrolls with sayings or prayer, like Silouan of Athos.
Sometimes the attributes of saints are unexpected, amazing, and you can understand them only by knowing the life.
For example, the holy Tsarevich Demetrius can be depicted on icons in a crown (although he was not crowned), often with nuts in his hand, with which he played before his death.
Or an amazing icon of the holy martyr (we read this from the cross in hand) Christopher, instead of whose head there is depicted, surrounded by a halo, the head of ... a dog. This is an exaggerated episode from his life: the martyr Christopher prayed to God to take away his beauty in order to avoid temptations and make him terrible.

Understanding Shapes

The figures on the icons are also symbolic. So, for example, a square or rectangle, on which the saint's feet often stand, means human - our land and the fact that the action takes place in the world below. In figures with a large number of angles, this number is symbolic: a hexagon, introducing the theme of the six days of creation, an octagon with Eternity, and so on.
Circle - a figure without corners, which is perfect, symbolizes the fullness of being, and is often depicted on the icons of the creation of the earth. In addition, halos have the shape of a circle. And on the icon “Rejoices in You”, for example, the entire figure of the Mother of God is inscribed in a circle (mandorla) - a symbol of Divine glory. And then the outlines of the circle are repeated again and again - in the walls and domes of the temple, in the branches of the Garden of Eden, in the flight of mysterious, almost invisible heavenly forces at the very top of the icon.

Perspective and sides

Everyone who is interested in icons has heard about reverse perspective in icons. It is no secret that the reverse perspective emphasizes that it is not the person standing in front of the icon who is the center of the world, but the One who, as it were, looks at him from the icon. But what is rarely talked about in connection with the reverse perspective is the sides. After all, if an icon is painted “from a different point of view,” then its right (for us) side becomes left (for it) and vice versa. And the sides also have their own symbolism. The right side (from the point of view of internal organization, i.e. for us, the left) corresponds to the foreground (and present time), and the left side - to the back (and future time). This helps us to understand many icons, for example, the iconography of the Last Judgment, in which the righteous are presented to the left of the viewer, and the sinners to the right, and not vice versa.

Icon center

In the center of the icon, the most important thing is usually depicted - that, from the point of view of what (or Whom) it narrates. For example, the compositional center of the famous "Trinity" by Andrei Rublev is a bowl, which is blessed by the hands of angels. The entire movement of the prayer’s inner gaze takes place around this bowl (let us recall here the symbolism of the circle).
Often the picturesque center of the icon is the Gospel. The perspective of the icon, as it were, unfolds from him, the side edges of the book are written in bright colors. “We see the cover of the Gospel, but the bright edges growing in depth show how incomparably more important is what lies behind this cover,” writes one of the researchers.

On October 23, 787, the Ecumenical Council established the order of veneration of icons, which has survived to this day. Until the 16th century, even illiterate people were able to "read" icons

1. BOTTOM UP
Icons should be read from the bottom up, as if rising from the earthly world to the heavenly. Saints are often depicted standing on the ground, but reaching for the sky - such was, metaphorically speaking, their life path. Sometimes at the bottom of the icon there are important attributes, details of the life of the saints, which are not evident if the image is not viewed sequentially. In ancient icons, even the board of the frame plays a role; it is the boundary between our world and the spiritual world represented in the icon. In the Syrian and Egyptian deserts, it was not so easy to get a tree, and even more so a linden - also a symbolic plant.

If you look closely at the ancient icons, the line between the frame and the image is usually written in color - most often red. This border is called “husk” (like a thin film in seeds that “husk”), it symbolizes the border between the lower and upper worlds, and it is red because this border, this transition, was given by blood ...

2. ATTENTION TO THE BACKGROUND
The background on the icon plays an important role, like everything else - they say that not a single millimeter of the icon is written meaninglessly, just like that. In the most ancient times of Christianity, the background of icons was painted in detail to show the reality of the events that took place on them. Later, a reminder of reality will become less important for the icon. Much more often now we meet a solid background: gold or white. These two colors are the "highest" in the Byzantine tradition. White is the color of paradise, and the icons that have it as a background clearly show the person standing in front of them that the action takes place in paradise. Golden color - the color of holiness and a special, immaterial radiance. In addition, gold does not change color, it is permanent and is associated with eternity. With gold tested in the furnace, Scripture compares the martyrs who suffered for Christ.

The icons of the saints sometimes depict the places of their life and deeds. So, for example, the Cathedral of the Kiev-Pechersk Saints is painted against the backdrop of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra; Mary of Egypt is depicted against the backdrop of the desert; Blessed Xenia - against the backdrop of St. Petersburg and the temple at the Smolensk cemetery. There is a well-known icon of John of Shanghai, it depicts a pavement and a taxi - that among which this saint lived.

3. SYMBOLIC COLORS
We have already talked about the white and gold colors on the icon. But other colors also have their own symbolic meaning, and it is probably interesting to know that there is a color that you will not find on canonical icons. This color is grey, a color obtained by mixing white and black. In the spiritual world, heaven and hell, holiness and sin, good and evil do not mix, and darkness cannot embrace light. Therefore, for icon painters who treat color as an image endowed with meaning and never choose color arbitrarily, “for beauty”, gray is not needed.

Blue and blue colors correspond with the sky, other, eternal world and wisdom. This is the color of the Mother of God, who combined both the earthly and the heavenly. So by the blue domes you can always recognize the Mother of God Church.

4. DESCRIPTION OF ATTRIBUTES
Even the smallest attributes on icons give us "keys" to their understanding. "Russian Seven" has already touched on this topic, for example, in the material about the icon "Burning Bush". What are the most common attributes of saints on icons? Crosses in the hands of saints usually mean that this person was martyred for his faith.

Or an amazing icon of the holy martyr (we read this from the cross in our hand) Christopher, instead of whose head there is depicted, surrounded by a halo, the head of ... a dog. This is an exaggerated episode from his life: the martyr Christopher prayed to God to take away his beauty in order to avoid temptations and make him terrible.

5. UNDERSTANDING THE FIGURES
The figures on the icons are also symbolic. So, for example, a square or rectangle, on which the saint's feet often stand, means human - our land and the fact that the action takes place in the world below. In figures with a large number of angles, this number is symbolic: a hexagon, introducing the theme of the six days of creation, an octagon with Eternity, and so on.

Circle - a figure without corners, which is perfect, symbolizes the fullness of being, and is often depicted on the icons of the creation of the earth. In addition, halos have the shape of a circle. And on the icon “Rejoices in You”, for example, the entire figure of the Mother of God is inscribed in a circle (mandorla) - a symbol of Divine glory. And then the outlines of the circle are repeated again and again - in the walls and domes of the temple, in the branches of the Garden of Eden, in the flight of mysterious, almost invisible heavenly forces at the very top of the icon.

6. PERSPECTIVE AND SIDES
Everyone who is interested in icons has heard about reverse perspective in icons. It is no secret that the reverse perspective emphasizes that it is not the person standing in front of the icon who is the center of the world, but the One who, as it were, looks at him from the icon. But what is rarely talked about in connection with the reverse perspective is the sides. After all, if an icon is painted “from a different point of view,” then its right (for us) side becomes left (for it) and vice versa. And the sides also have their own symbolism. The right side (from the point of view of internal organization, i.e. for us, the left) corresponds to the foreground (and present time), and the left side - to the back (and future time). This helps us to understand many icons, for example, the iconography of the Last Judgment, in which the righteous are presented to the left of the viewer, and the sinners to the right, and not vice versa.

7. CENTER OF THE ICON
In the center of the icon, the most important thing is usually depicted - that, from the point of view of what (or Whom) it narrates. For example, the compositional center of the famous "Trinity" by Andrei Rublev is a bowl, which is blessed by the hands of angels. The entire movement of the prayer’s inner gaze takes place around this bowl (let us recall here the symbolism of the circle).

Often the picturesque center of the icon is the gospel. The perspective of the icon, as it were, unfolds from him, the side edges of the book are written in bright colors. “We see the cover of the Gospel, but the bright edges growing in depth show how incomparably more important is what lies behind this cover,” writes one of the researchers.

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Until the 16th century, even illiterate people were able to “read” icons, and one icon sometimes replaced dozens of sermons. Here are the main 7 principles on how to read icons correctly.

1 From bottom to top

Sometimes at the bottom of the icon there are important attributes, details of the life of the saints, which are not evident if the image is not viewed sequentially. In ancient icons, even the board of the frame plays a role, it is the boundary between our world and the spiritual world represented in the icon. In the Syrian and Egyptian deserts, it was not so easy to get a tree, and even more so a linden - also a symbolic plant.

If you look closely at ancient icons, the line between the frame and the image is usually written in color - most often in red. This border is called “husk” (like a thin film in seeds that “husk”), it symbolizes the border between the lower and upper worlds, and it is red because this border, this transition, was given by blood ...

2 Attention to the background

Much more often now we meet a solid background: gold or white. These two colors are the "highest" in the Byzantine tradition.

White color- the color of paradise, and the icons that have it as a background clearly show the person standing in front of them that the action takes place in paradise.

Golden color- the color of holiness and a special, immaterial radiance. In addition, gold does not change color, it is permanent and is associated with eternity. With gold tested in the furnace, Scripture compares the martyrs who suffered for Christ.

The icons of the saints sometimes depict the places of their life and deeds. So, for example, the Cathedral of the Kiev-Pechersk Saints is painted against the backdrop of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra; Mary of Egypt is depicted against the backdrop of the desert; Blessed Xenia - against the backdrop of St. Petersburg and the temple at the Smolensk cemetery. There is a well-known icon of St. John of Shanghai, it depicts a pavement and a taxi - that among which this saint lived.

3 Symbolic colors

Red color has multiple meanings. It is the color of blood, the color of Christ's sacrifice. Therefore, the people depicted on the icon in red robes are martyrs. The wings of the archangels-seraphs close to the throne of God shine with red heavenly fire. But red is also a symbol of the Resurrection, the victory of life over death. There are even icons with a red background - a sign of the triumph of eternal life. The red background always fills the icon with an Easter sound.

Blue and cyan colors correlate with heaven, another, eternal world and wisdom. This is the color of the Mother of God, who combined both the earthly and the heavenly. So by the blue domes you can always recognize the Mother of God Church.

4 Attribute interpretation

Even the smallest attributes on icons give us "keys" to their understanding. What are the most common attributes of saints on icons?

Crosses in hands saints usually mean that this person was martyred for his faith. Often, something for which they became famous is given into the hands of the saints on the icon. For example, on the palm of Sergius of Radonezh they write the monastery founded by him. Saint Panteleimon is holding a medicine box. Saints and evangelists on icons hold the Gospel. Reverends - a rosary, like Seraphim of Sarov, or scrolls with sayings or prayer, like Silouan of Athos.

Sometimes the attributes of saints are unexpected, amazing, and you can understand them only by knowing the life. For example, the holy Tsarevich Demetrius can be depicted on icons in a crown (although he was not crowned), often with nuts in his hand, with which he played before his death. Or an amazing icon of the holy martyr (we read this from the cross in hand) Christopher, instead of the head of which there is depicted, surrounded by a halo, the head of ... a dog. This is an exaggerated episode from his life: the martyr Christopher prayed to God to take away his beauty in order to avoid temptations and make him terrible.

5 Understanding shapes

The figures on the icons are also symbolic. For example, square or rectangle, on which the feet of the saint often stand, means human - our land and the fact that the action takes place in the world below. In figures with a large number of angles, this number is symbolic: hexagon introducing the theme of the six days of creation, octagon— with Eternity and so on. A circle- a figure without corners, which is perfect, symbolizes the fullness of being, and is often depicted on the icons of the creation of the earth. In addition, halos have the shape of a circle.

And on the icon “Rejoices in You”, for example, the entire figure of the Mother of God is inscribed in a circle (mandorla) - a symbol of Divine glory. And then the outlines of the circle are repeated again and again - in the walls and domes of the temple, in the branches of the Garden of Eden, in the flight of mysterious, almost invisible heavenly forces at the very top of the icon.

6 Perspective and sides

Right side(from the point of view of internal organization, i.e. for us, the left) corresponds to the foreground (and present time), and left- with back (and future tense). This helps us to understand many icons, for example, the iconography of the Last Judgment, in which the righteous are presented to the left of the viewer, and the sinners to the right, and not vice versa.

7 Icon center

In the center of the icon, the most important thing is usually depicted - that, from the point of view of what (or Whom) it tells. For example, the compositional center of the famous "Trinity" by Andrei Rublev is a bowl, which is blessed by the hands of angels. The entire movement of the prayer’s inner gaze takes place around this bowl (let us recall here the symbolism of the circle).

Often the picturesque center of the icon is the Gospel. The perspective of the icon, as it were, unfolds from him, the side edges of the book are written in bright colors. “We see the cover of the Gospel, but the bright edges growing in depth show how incomparably more important is what lies behind this cover,” writes one of the researchers.

Until the 16th century, even illiterate people were able to "read" icons, and one icon sometimes replaced dozens of sermons.

Upwards

If you look closely at the ancient icons, the line between the frame and the image is usually written in color - most often red. This border is called "husk" (like a thin film in seeds that "husk"), it symbolizes the border between the lower and upper worlds, and it is red because this border, this transition, was given by blood ...

Attention to the background

Symbolic colors

Red color has several meanings at once. It is the color of blood, the color of Christ's sacrifice. Therefore, the people depicted on the icon in red clothes are martyrs. The wings of the archangels-seraphs close to the throne of God shine with red heavenly fire. But red is also a symbol of the Resurrection, the victory of life over death. There are even icons with a red background - a sign of the triumph of eternal life. The red background always fills the icon with an Easter sound.
Blue and blue colors correspond with the sky, other, eternal world and wisdom. This is the color of the Mother of God, who combined both the earthly and the heavenly. So by the blue domes you can always recognize the Mother of God Church.

Attribute interpretation

Even the smallest attributes on icons give us "keys" to their understanding. "Russian Seven" has already touched on this topic, for example, in the article about the icon "Burning Bush". What are the most common attributes of saints on icons? Crosses in the hands of saints usually mean that this person was martyred for his faith.

Often, something for which they became famous is given into the hands of the saints on the icon. For example, on the palm of Sergius of Radonezh they write the monastery founded by him. Saint Panteleimon is holding a medicine box. Saints and evangelists on icons hold the Gospel. Reverends - a rosary, like Seraphim of Sarov, or scrolls with sayings or prayer, like Silouan of Athos.
Sometimes the attributes of saints are unexpected, amazing, and you can understand them only by knowing the life.
For example, the holy Tsarevich Demetrius can be depicted on icons in a crown (although he was not crowned), often with nuts in his hand, with which he played before his death.
Or an amazing icon of the holy martyr (we read this from the cross in hand) Christopher, instead of whose head there is depicted, surrounded by a halo, the head of ... a dog. This is an exaggerated episode from his life: the martyr Christopher prayed to God to take away his beauty in order to avoid temptations and make him terrible.

Understanding Shapes

Perspective and sides

Everyone who is interested in icons has heard about reverse perspective in icons. It is no secret that the reverse perspective emphasizes that it is not the person standing in front of the icon who is the center of the world, but the One who, as it were, looks at him from the icon. But what is rarely talked about in connection with the reverse perspective is the sides. After all, if an icon is painted "from a different point of view", then its right (for us) side becomes left (for it) and vice versa. And the sides also have their own symbolism. The right side (from the point of view of internal organization, i.e. for us, the left) corresponds to the foreground (and present time), and the left side - to the back (and future time). This helps us to understand many icons, for example, the iconography of the Last Judgment, in which the righteous are presented to the left of the viewer, and the sinners to the right, and not vice versa.

Previously, even illiterate people perfectly understood what this or that plot depicted on the icons means, which characters are secondary in it, and which are the main ones, they understood the meaning of their every gesture, any movement ...

In order to read and correctly understand an icon, in addition to a good knowledge of the Bible and other religious legends, one must know the language of symbols, because in icon painting almost every character expresses, in addition to himself, some other, and sometimes not one, essence.

For example, the Eastern wise men, the Magi, who came to bow to the newborn Christ, simultaneously personify three human ages: youth, maturity and old age, so they were given the appropriate appearance on the icons. What is the symbolic thought contained in this image? It can be read as follows: all of humanity, both old and young, must bow before the new faith, i.e. Christianity.

Or Joseph, the earthly, adoptive father of Jesus, an obligatory participant in the compositions of "The Nativity of Christ." When he is depicted talking with a shepherd, this is a very specific character, Joseph, a carpenter from Nazareth ... But on some icons, Joseph is depicted sitting alone, with half-closed eyes. In such cases, this figure is interpreted as the personification of the night's rest, the silence that descended to earth at Christmas hour.

All characters in icons, unless they are ordinary people, are depicted with halos above their heads. The halo is a symbol of holiness or divinity. But they are not identical in shape. God the Father has a star-shaped halo, Christ has a cross halo, the Mother of God, angels and saints have round halos. Moreover, the star means deification, and the circle means eternity, eternal life.

A lot in icon painting and various allegories. The virgin in the royal crown and mantle on the throne is spring; a winged naked youth blowing a trumpet is the wind; old men and young men, sometimes women with narrow-necked amphoras or urns in their hands, from which water flows, is the personification of streams and rivers.

Certain properties of the human character are also symbolized by the images of some animals. A slow, ever-retreating cancer, for example, personifies inertia, moral ignorance.

Of particular importance are those objects that the saints hold in their hands and by which they can be easily distinguished from each other. So, the apostle Peter is usually depicted with a golden key in his hands. Why? According to tradition, Jesus made him his vicar on earth and handed him the keys to the Christian church. When St. Nicholas is depicted as Nicholas of Mozhaisk (from the city of Mozhaisk, which, according to legend, he defended from enemies), then in one hand he can see a temple, and in the other - a naked sword ...

Nor should one be surprised that one and the same icon shows an event developing in time. The ancient masters were able to convey on one icon at once the whole story, its beginning, development and end, as well as what happened before the main event and what will happen after it. And most often the episodes do not follow sequentially, but mixed with each other. But this not only does not interfere with the perception of the icon, but, on the contrary, even enhances the impression, because the icon perceives not reality, but its spiritual content contained in symbols.