In 730 Byzantine Emperor Leo III banned the cult of icons. Before he came to the throne he had worked in the Empire's eastern provinces and was under the influence of the bishops of Asia Minor, who were themselves influenced by Islam and wanted to rid Christianity of all that seemed material and unspiritual. Many icons, frescoes, and mosaics were destroyed but this did not stop Christians from venerating them and despite the fact that they were severely persecuted for it they continued to do so. Veneration of icons was allowed temporarily at the VII Ecumenical Council in 787 , and finally - in the year 843.

One of the authoritative icon-defenders was the prominent theologian and politician John of Damascus (about 675-about 750) whose arguments determined the Council's decisions. John of Damascus taught that the Old Testament ban on creating images of God w<as temporary: 'In the old times they never repre­sented God in images . But now that God has made Himself manifest in flesh and lived among people , we show the visible God. I do not depict in lines and colour the Invisible, but the flesh of God that people have seen...'. John of Damascus wrote that God has come to people in His Son Jesus Christ. He comes into the world of people and has a human body, - for we need what is kindred to us' . The visible does not convey the essence of the incomprehensible God. But like the body has a shadow, so every original has copies, and in the same way an 'icon is a reminder'. And as the Holy Scriptures are a verbal image of the Holy History, so the same image is represented in icons - not verbally, but in lines and colour.

Therefore an icon - an image - is not a copy of the original, but a symbol through which one can rise to understanding the Divine. An icon plays the role of a mystical intermediary' between the earthly world and the world of Heaven. This is how< the meaning of icon-painting was defined.

The VII Ecumenical Council demanded of icon-painters that they strictly follow iconographic canons in creating icons. Iconographic canons regulate both the character and the way of reproducing religious epi­sodes and the images of saints. This is due to the fact that icons bear and keep the Church Tradition. Therefore breaking iconographic canons is equal to distorting the Tradition and lapsing into heresy.

Symbolism of Colors in Icons

Icons are built of symbols like the letters of the alphabet, with which holy text can be written. Only those who know the letters' of this alphabet can read and understand the text.

A collection of all canonical icons manifests in itself the richness of the Orthodox teaching. If a pagan comes to you saying: 'Show⁷ me your faith', take him to church and put him in front of various kinds of holy images'.

An icon is a graphic exposition of the Holy Tradition. To keep it unchanged icon prototypes and stan­dards were created and passed on from artist to artist and from generation to generation. When they were reproduced , the faces of the canonized saints lost their individual features and turned into symbols -signs of celestial spirituality (the Russian word 'jihijo' - face - is replaced by the more solemn word 'jthk' when applied to icons. - translator's note).

The decisions of the VII Ecumenical Council were addressed to the whole Christian world . But the Franks' King Charles, the future Emperor Charles the Great, the Byzantine Emperor's rival in the medie­val world, did not accept the Council's decisions - it was a logical consequence of the West's confronta­tion with the East.

As a response to the VII Council decisions Karolyngs' books were made up in 790-794 on Charles' initia­tive. The books stated that the object of worship is God alone but by no means icons. Icons can be used only to decorate churches and for catechization purposes. For this reason no canonization of images was accepted.

Thus the Western Church did not have iconographic schemes and this enabled Western European artists to give their own interpretation of the Old Testament and Christian subjects. Thus in religious art they gradually deviated from icon-painting and simply created pictures using religious themes. The significance of this phenomenon cannot be overestimated. An artist's work is always a search. And the search bore its fruit: linear perspective , the means to convey motion and the properties of air and many other things were discovered.

People who came to church services looked at what we would call icons, saw the discoveries and studied constantly, unaware of the fact that they were studying, - because sciences had not separated from arts at that time yet and lots of discoveries in painting were the roots of new⁷ sciences.

However, in Byzantium and other Orthodox countries the situation with arts was quite different. Canon­ized iconography and the dogmas of the Orthodox faith formed a coordinate system showing people the true way through the ups and downs of life. So an icon-painter did not have to search for new artistic means as there already existed the methods of creating images adequate to the faith.

By the beginning of the second millennium Western and Eastern Europe had taken separate roads in cul­ture, arts and science.

The crystallized set of canon images and firm iconographic schemes formed the Orthodox icon-painting world. Its masterpieces strengthen and purify the faith. Icon-painting as an art was passed from Byzan­tium to Old Rus in an established shape.

Icon-painting found its new motherland in Rus. Russian artists did not just copy the great Greek arts tradi­tions but enriched them. They breathed into icon-painting new aesthetics and the energy of a young nation which had just emerged on the world history scene. Unlike the heavy static Byzantine images Russian icons shone with new bright clear colours, with fine lines full of strength and motion. Authors of Old Russian icons are for the most part unknown. Icons, as well as prayers, are the result of collective creative effort, they were edited thoroughly by many generations. It resembles the process of faceting a precious stone. Creating an icon the artist but reproduces the original that goes back to the Pro­totype. But a gifted master could express himself too - in most subtle nuances. Such an icon, being in fact a prayer, addressed God personally and directly and did not need the name of the person who created it. Old Rus¹ best icons are filled with deep spiritual meaning and, despite identical iconography of a subject, they are surprisingly different - as different as the people who created them.

The canonization of iconography had a two-fold effect: on the one hand, it limited the artist's personal creative freedom, but on the other hand, it was the fruit of the intellectual and spiritual effort of the previ­ous generations, embodying their rich icon-painting experience. Creating icons was collective work, so every artist contributed his mite to this great effort.

Church art can be properly viewed only from within church life; understanding it is impossible without knowing the Orthodox teaching. Icons and church singing cannot be perceived just from the aesthetic point of view. They are somehow different from art. Therefore it is clear why Russian Orthodox Church insists on being given back the miracle-working icons kept in museums. In a museum an icon is not alto­gether an icon. It needs the whole order of church life: a temple, liturgy, a place among other icons, and what is the most important - the eyeUnderstanding icons may be difficult due to a special way of convey­ing space and the beings and objects inside it.

We look at pictures with the eyes of a European, and what we see in them seems to resemble what we see around. 'Verisimilitude' in European painting is achieved by using linear perspective. The teaching that deals with perspective was bom in the XIII century and played an important role in European culture. The first to create an illusion of the three-dimensional space on a plane was Giotto (1267-1332). We may use his frescoes as an example 'Annunciation to Anne' and 'The birth of Man¹ (1305-1313). Joachim and Anne, the righteous couple, did not have children. Once an angel appeared to Anne and an­nounced to her that she would have a daughter, the future Mother of God. And Anne gave birth to Mary. Let us see how Giotto reproduces those events. The interior of Anne's house is drawn correctly from the point of view of geometry. The action was meant to take place inside the building. Before Giotto there had been no interior in pictures, frescoes and icons. A building, or a hill with a cave, served as a back­ground for the characters. To show the interior the wall closest to the spectator in Giotto's fresco is re­moved. Showing the interior in such a manner was a great innovation introduced by Giotto. He dared to step aside from the tradition of conventional painting. Judging by the size of the objects (the bench, the chest) we can imagine the size of the room where the action takes place.

Giotto seems to use transparent cubes to build the space in his frescoes. This is the first and most impor­tant step towards arithmetizing space. In the seventeenth century the French philosopher and mathemati­cian Rene Decartes (1596-1650) laid the foundations of analytical geometry which, but for Giotto's dis­covery, would have been born much later.

Let us look at Giotto's frescoes again. The angel is flying in through a small window. An angel, having no flesh, needs no window to get inside a room. But Giotto's angel does not just fly in through the window but squeezes through it. acquiring almost physical materiality. In such a way Giotto brings the miracle 'down to Earth', trying to make it look trustworthy.

Translation of Christian Tradition into the language of earthly images and the discovery of linear perspec­tive marked a new⁷ age in European art - the art of realism.

However, people who created icons had quite a different attitude toward space . The space 'not of this world' is usually conveyed in icons by golden background; objects and their location in relation to one another are given in the so called reverse perspective.

Let us try to explain the nature and properties of reverse perspective which is older than linear perspec­tive. Icon-painters knew the fact that human eyesight is imperfect and cannot be trusted because it be­longs to the flesh. Therefore they reproduced the world not as they saw it but as it really is. They did not use the experience of their earthly life but the dogmas of the faith. The authors of the first written works on linear perspective Ibn Al Khaisam and Z Vitelo considered the decrease of the size of objects moving

away from the spectator to be an optical illusion. But linear perspective geometry (repro­ducing this 'optical illusion¹) was convenient and was eventually mastered by European

As for Orthodox icon-painters, they remained taie to reverse perspective, y As has already been already mentioned , an icon is a window facing the holy, sacred world

ctive ische i ej which opens to a person looking at the icon. Space in that world has properties different

from those of the space on Earth; properties unseen by physical eyes and inexplicable through the logic of this world.

The picture shows how the expanding space is constructed. Here appears the reverse perspective: objects also expand moving away from the spectator.

However, artists could not stick to the scheme strictly, as the world in icons is just represented - by sym­bols of objects and people. - so one can often see 'mistakes' in icons.

Reverse perspective and its properties are vividly expressed in the 'Laying in the Tomb* icon. In the fore­ground there is the tomb with Christ's swaddled body in it. The Mother of God is bending over it, press­ing her face to her Son's face. Next to her the Teacher's beloved disciple - st. John the Theologian is bending over the body. He looks into Jesus Christ's face with sorrow, propping up his chin with his hand. Behind St. John there are Joseph of Arimathea and Nikodemos standing still in sadness. To their left there stand the myrrh-bearing women.

The sorrowful scene is laid against the background of 'icon hills', drawn using the technique of reverse perspective - they expand radially as they move away from the spectator.

Reverse perspective produces an extremely powerful effect here: the space 'unfolds' in all directions - up and down, to the sides and deep inwards so that everything that takes place in the icon acquires a cosmic scale. Mary Magdalene's raised hands seem to connect the place where the Lord's tomb is with the whole Universe.

The shroud shining with unearthly whiteness immediately draws the spectator's attention to Christ's body wrapped in it but the details of St. John's and Man Magdalene's clothes look like dark flashes directed upwards against the background of Man Magdalene's bright-red garment. The flashes make the specta­tor's eyes follow her tragically raised hands and look upwards towards the other world. But the edges of the icon hills converge at the coffin, letting one's eyes go back to the body of Christ - the center of the Universe.

This laconically expressive icon is a model of a still, lamenting prayer; its sad words have acquired shape and colour on an icon board...

Reverse perspective does not result from the artists' inability to reproduce space. Old Russian icon-painters rejected linear perspective when they came to know it. Reverse perspective retained its spiritual meaning and represented a protest against the temptations of'physical eyesight'.

Besides, using reverse perspective often had some technical advantages: for example it allowed to turn buildings in a way that opened to sight details and scenes 'screened off by the buildings.s of people for whom it is a window facing the other reality, - that of the divine world.

To be able to understand icons it is necessary to know how people of the Middle Ages perceived and un­derstood the concept of time. The difference between the concept of time in Western Europe and that in Byzantium was formed in the Renaissance period, when Europe, unlike Byzantium, acquired the new atti­tudes and outlook towards the world. After temporal seizure of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204 the estrangement between Byzantium and Europe became even more profound and implacable. Different attitudes towards time caused different attitudes towards the world; to the events in it. and to the role of men in these events. As a result, the meaning and objectives of art in Byzantium and Western Europe altered too. Because of these fundamentally different artistic techniques were developed by the artists of Western Europe and the icon-painters of the Orthodox countries.

The Renaissance revived the notion of history and separated Holy History from lay history. The promi­nent Italians - Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374), Leonardo Bruni (1374-1444) and Lorenzo Valla (1403-1457) began the study of scientific history.

Lorenzo Balla, the author of the famous work "Elegances of the Latin Language", made it his aim to re­vive classical Latin, where philosophy, rhetoric and language are inseparable. Not only did he have to address the heritage of antiquity, but also to explore the reasons for "language corruption" and culture decline during "the time of barbarism". All this led to a retrospective review of history and historical time. Time was now related to change, to cause-and-effect relations of events in their historical sequence. The conception of historical succession emerged and, therefore so did the understanding of the depth of time and the awareness of perspective. Discover} of perspective and historical time coincided, in fact, with the emergence of the theories on aerial and linear perspective.

Awareness of events, taking place in space and time, resulted in the fact that European artists stopped de­picting events that took place at different times simultaneously in their pictures. For instance, in Giotto's fresco "Birth of Mary", we can see the girl in two places at one time: in the midwife's arms, sitting on the floor by the bed, and near her Mother. Such examples are numerous.

New attitudes to time and new theological thinking, which recognized free will in a man through which God's design could find realization, engendered a new' man - a man of conscious action. A man. who cre­ated the history of his own life, and together with other people - the history of their nation (Leonardo Bruni). This new⁷ man could say about himself: "...1 make use of my time, being constantly engaged in some kind of activity, I would prefer to lose my sleep rather than waste my time." (Leon Battista Alberti. "On the Family").

This approach was prominent in the fine arts. Artists began to study the movements of the human body, changes in appearance caused by the mood (anger, joy. laughter, sadness) or ageing processes. Funda­mental discoveries were made in this field and the role of muscles and their specialization was found.The understanding of movement as opposed to equilibrium gave rise to new composition methods, for in­stance removing the center of gravity from the body and showing unfinished gestures in pictures. This technique makes the viewer perceive a prolonged movement in the painting.

A passive man of the Gothic period was replaced by a man of free will. Readiness for action, for move­ment was revealed through the strained muscles and the expression of face and eves. Looking at the pic­ture we are waiting for action and because of this the picture is alive; the pulse of time is beating in it. In the East of Europe, in Byzantium and Ancient Rus. a previous concept of time and history, dating back to the Fathers of the Church (St Augustine etc.) was preserved. Life of a man is a period of time, having the beginning and the end - from the moment of creation of a man by God to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The event that divided history into two parts - the old and the new - was the birth of Jesus Christ. God's Incarnation.

Before the Creation of the World there was no time either. The concept of time can not be related to God. It is impossible to say that God "was" or "is" or "will be". In Russian it is translated as "existing", the One who "always was", "always is" and "will always be" which is derived from the Hebrew name of God -Jahweh - existing (He Brings Into Existence Whatever Exists).

God created the world and time "began". It began and will end with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, when "there will be no more time". Thus, time itself turns out to be "temporal", transient. It is like a "short period" on the background of eternity where God incarnates his design, creating Adam and know­ing from the very beginning the destiny of his descendants.

God's design already exists in complete fullness, which includes even thing. Time, history, life, all the objects, all the people, all the events, and everything has been given its place. Thus, the cause for any event is not defined in our earthly world but already exists in a different world. God is the source of eve­rything that was and will be.

The earthly life of a man is an interval between the Creation of the World and the Second Coming. It is a trial before eternity, when time stops. Eternal life is in store for those who pass this trial. The saints depicted in the old icons have already been found worthy of eternal life. They are devoid of movement and change in the ordinary sense, The blessing fingers of the right hand are not a message from this world. Slender fingers are lifted without effort. They do not have weight, for there is no heavi­ness in the other world. The gaze of a saint is the look from eternity. It is not blurred by passions - that is why we can only return it in the moments of spiritual enlightenment. That is why the eyes looking at us from the icons disturb us and make us feel apprehension, fear, and hope.

What the old Russian icons depict, does not imply either spatial nor time localization. The image exists beyond space and time.

Here is the image "The Saviour" by Andrew Rublov (1360/70-about 1430).The eyes turned to us from eternity see everything, understand everything and take in everything and it is precisely for this reason that everything can be found in the Saviour's eyes, and everybody always, can apply to Him. Peculiar understanding of time and space in Old Russian icon-painting bore fundamental dogmatic mean­ing. That is the reason why, in the second half of the 17th century when Russian icon-painting started to be influenced by western painting, it evoked so much protest and indignation. Reasons for this were not the conservatism of icon-painting, but apprehensions of misinterpretation of the very sense and essence of the icon. It is difficult to deny that mages can not be painted as though they were alive in icons. The saints are in another world; in eternity, they do not live earthly lives, characterized by time and change. An introductory discussion on the symbolism of colors in icons Byzantines considered that the meaning of art is beauty. They painted icons that shined with metallic gold and bright colors. In their art each color had its place and value. Colors — whether bright or dark — were never mixed but always used pure. In BvzantiuiTL color was considered to have the same substance as words, indeed each color had its own

value and meaning. One or several colors combined together had the means to express ideas. Being trained in Byzantine art, Russian master-iconographers accepted and preserved the symbolism of color. Russian icons did not achieve the same magnificence and austerity as the art of imperial Byzantium. However, colors in Russian icons attained a brightness that was livelier and more vibrant. The iconogra-phers of ancient Russia learned to create works close in inspiration to local conditions, tastes and ideals. Gold

The brilliance of gold in mosaics and icons made it possible to feel the radiant light of God and the splen­dor of the celestial kingdom where there is never any night. Gold symbolized the divine nature of God himself. This color glimmers with different nuances in the icon of the Mother of God of Vladimir. Purple

Purple, or crimson, was a color very important in Byzantine culture. This is the color of the Celestial King and the Byzantine emperor, whom Andre Grabar called "God's Lieutenant on earth." Only the Byzantine emperor could sign edicts in purple ink and sit in glory upon a purple throne, and it was only he who wore purple clothing and boots — for all others it was strictly forbidden. The leather or wood bindings of the Gospel in churches were sometimes covered with purple cloth. This color is present in icons on the cloth­ing of the Mother of God - the Celestial Queen. Red

Red is one of the most frequently used colors in icons. This is the color of heat, passion, love, life and life-giving energy, and for this very reason red became the symbol of the resurrection — the victory of life over death. But at the same time it is the color of blood and torments, and the color of Christ's sacrifice. Martyrs are depicted in red clothing on icons. In red celestial fire blaze the wings of the Seraphim - an­gels stationed adjacent to God's throne. Sometimes icons were painted with a red background as a symbol of the celebration of eternal life. White

White is the symbol of the heavenly realm and God's divine light. (Figure 3) This is the color of cleanli­ness, holiness and simplicity. On icons and frescoes, saints and righteous people are usually depicted clothed in white as righteous ones - people who were good, honest, and lived by "the Truth." In the same manner, white was used in the swaddling bands of babies, the shrouds of the dead and the robes of angels. Only righteous souls were depicted as wearing white. Dark-Blue and Blue

Dark-blue and blue indicate the infiniteness of the sky and is the symbol of another everlasting world. Dark blue was considered the color of the Mother of God who combines in her self both the terrestrial and celestial. The backgrounds of mural paintings in many Byzantine churches dedicated to the Mother of God are filled with a celestial dark blue. Green

Green is the color of natural, living things. It is the color of grass and leaves, youth, flowering, hope, and eternal renovation. Ancient iconographers often painted the earth green to denote where life began - such as in scenes of the Annunciation (Figure 4) and the Nativity. Brown

Brown is the color of the bare earth, dust, and all that is transient and perishable. Used in combination with the royal purple clothing of the Mother of God, this color reminds one of her human nature, which was subject to death. Black

Black is the color of evil and death. In iconography, caves were painted with the color black as a symbol of humankind's grave and the gaping infernal abyss. In some subjects this was also the color of mystery. For example, against a black background, which indicated the incomprehensible depth of the universe, icon painters depicted Cosmos — an old man with a crown — in the icon of the Pentecost or Descent of Holy Spirit. The black robes of monks, who have left the path of worldly life, are a symbol of their es­chewing the pleasures and habits they formerly kept, and dying a death toward this way of life. Colors Not Used in Iconography

A color that was never used in iconography is gray. When mixing black and white together, iniquity and righteousness, it becomes the color of vagueness, the color of the void and nonexistence. There was no place for this color in the radiant world of the icon.

Icon-painting in Old Russia was a sacred profession. On the one hand, conforming to the canon impover­ished the creative process since the iconography of an image was strictly prescribed. But on the other hand it forced a painter to focus all his skill on the essence of his painting.

Traditions affected not only iconography but also materials, on which icons were painted, priming sub­stances, methods of preparing surfaces for painting, dye making techniques, and painting sequence. In Old Russia tempera, an egg-yolk dye, was used for icon-painting.

Icons were mostly painted on wooden plates, usually of linden. In the north they often took plates of larch and fir and in Pskov - of pine-tree. As a rule a plate was hewed out of a log. the strongest inner layer of the wooden trunk was chosen. This process was laborious and lengthy.

On the front side of a plate an ark was made. It was a shallow hollow confined with the fields lightly raised along the edges of the plate. For a small icon a single plate could be used. Large icons were com­posed of several plates. The fastening method, the ark depth and the fields width often help to determine the time and the place of an icon's plate manufacturing. The borders of ancient icons of Xl-XII-th centu­ries are wide as a mle and their arks are deep. The later icons have narrow^ borders and since the XIV cen­tury⁷ icons were painted sometimes on plates without borders.

Levkas was used as priming, it was composed out of chalk and fish-glue. An icon plate was spread with hot liquid glue several times and then a piece of linen material ("pavoloka") was pasted onto it. After the pavoloka had dried it was coated with levkas. Levkas was applied in several movements, layer by layer. The surface of levkas was thoroughly slicked and occasionally polished. Sometimes a relief was drawn on the levkas. Beginning from the XII century the gilt levkas of icons was engraved. Sometimes such pattern engraving was made on the nimbus. Later on, beginning from the XVI century, the carving on the levkas was performed before painting in order to create a relief pattern. Then the relief was gilded. A drawing was implemented on the prepared surface of the prime. Initially the first drawing of images was accomplished, then the second, the detailed one. The first drawing was made with a slight touch of a soft birch twigs charcoal, and the second - with black or brown dye.

Some icons were reproduced according to the "originals" or to the copies, acquired from the prototypes. After that the painting itself was begun. First everything necessary⁷ was gilded: the icon's fields, the light, the nimbuses, and the folds of the clothes. Then the clothes, the buildings and the landscape were drawn. At the final stage the faces (liks) were painted. The finished image was covered with oil var­nish.

The work with dyes was carried out in a strict sequence. First the areas confined with the outlines of the drawing were covered with thin layers of corresponding dyes in the following order: the background, the mountains, the buildings, the clothes, the naked parts of the body, and the faces. After that the prominent details of objects were brightened. Little by little adding white to dyes an icon-painter covered smaller and smaller areas. The last strokes were made with pure white.

The darkened and deep areas were sometimes covered with a superfine layer of a dark dye in order to add third-dimensional effect. After that the features and the hair were drawn in thin lines. Then light flashes with white or ochre with a large portion of whitening were added to the prominent fea­tures: the forehead, the cheek-bones, the nose, the hair locks. The rouge was painted after that. The lips, the cheeks, the end of the nose, the lobes of the ears and the comers of the eyes were covered with red dye. Then the pupils of the eyes, the hair, the eyebrows, the moustache and the beard were painted with liquid brown dye.

The patterns, "originals", served as guides for icon-painting. They contained indications on how this or that image had to look.

Tempera painting required expertise and high capacity for drawing, that could be achieved during the long years of apprenticeship. Icon-painting was a great creative work and icon-painters were specially prepared for performing "the deed of icon creating".

It was an act of communication with God and required spiritual and physical purification "... when writ­ing a hoh⁷ icon he touched the food only on Saturdays and Sundays, being restless day and night. He spent nights in wakefulness, praying and obeisance. At daytime he devoted himself to icon-painting with humility, non-possessiveness, purity, patience, fast, love, and God-thinking."

Successfully drawn images were thought to be painted not by a painter but by God. Very few names of Old Russian painters have remembered. If the hands of a painter were used by God for creating an icon, it was inappropriate to mention the man's name.

On the other hand, icon-painting was a sacred communication with God. It was unnecessary⁷ to name one­self, because God new the one who humbly and prayerfully tried to reproduce the Prototype. Unfortunately the dried oily varnish, grows dark with time. Approximately 80 years after the covering of an icon the pellicle of varnish becomes black and almost completely hides the painting. It was necessary to "renew" those icons. A new painting was added, with which the painter intended to reproduce the drawing hidden under the blackened oil. New paintings covered old icons layer by layer. Sometimes quite another image was painted.

The iconostasis is quite a solid screen stretching from the northern to the southern wall of a church, whereon icons are arranged in a predefined order. This screen divides the Altar from the church's middle part. There are three doors in the iconostasis. The central doors are called the Holy (Royal) Doors. And a

man who is not in a Holy order is not permitted to enter them. On the right side there are the southern doors, they are sometimes called Deacon's, and on the left side - the northern doors.

|||BR First there was no iconostasis in orthodox churches. During the first centuries SSj, wpll the altar was visible for all the praying people, it was divided from them only

with a lattice. Nowadays the Holy Doors are also often latticed, and the ico­nostasis itself rarely comes up to the ceiling. It is arranged in such a way to make the exclamations of a priest in the Altar audible for everyone in the church.

When the icons themselves are looked at one notices that the iconostasis is usually decorated with several rows of icons.

The lowest row. There are some important moments, which make it easy to understand the complex symbolism of the iconostasis. WTien you enter an unfamiliar church it is worth paying attention to the images of the lowest row. The biggest icons are placed here.

Let's approach the rightmost image. It is the icon of that church. It will al-i ways prompt you in honor of what holyday or Saint was that church conse­

crated. The same place on the left side is occupied by the "icon of the local row". You can always define the Saint who is mostly honored in that region.

Approaching the Holy Doors you'll see the small icons of the Annunciation and of the four Evangelists: Mathew⁷, Mark, Luke, and John. Above the Holy Doors "The Mystical Supper" is placed, it is the symbol of the mystery of the Holy Eucharist.

Right to the Holy Doors the large icon of the Savior is placed, and left to it - the icon of the Mother of God with the Infant in Her hands. On the northern and southern doors Archangels Gabriel and Michael are painted.

The second row. Now⁷ we will look at the icons of the next row⁷. While the lowest row⁷ introduces us the basic moments of the orthodox dogma and the particulars of local worship of Saints, the second row (that is also often called The Deesis) is more complex: there are more icons here and they are smaller. The whole row⁷ symbolizes the praying of the Church to Christ, praying that happens now⁷ and will finish at the Last Judgment. At the middle of the row⁷ (just above the Holy Doors and the icon of "The Mystical Sup­per") the "Spas in Powers" is placed. Christ sitting on the throne with a book in His hand is painted against a background of a red square with elongated endings (the Earth), a blue oval (the spiritual world), and a red rhomb (the invisible world). This image represents Christ as a stern judge of the whole universe. The icon of John the Forerunner, the God's Baptist, is placed to the right and the icon of the Mother of God - to the left. Her image is not occasionally "Patroness (Protectress)". The Theotokos is painted in full-length looking to the left with a roll in Her hand. Right and left from these icons we see the images of Archangels. Prophets and the most well-known Saints, which present the Christ's Holy Church. The third row⁷. That is so-called the "holiday row". We can also call it historical: it introduces us the events of the Evangelical history. The first icon here is the Nativity of the Most-Holy Mother of God. then go the Presentation in the Temple, the Annunciation, the Nativity of Christ (Christmas), the Meeting of the Lord, the Epiphany (The Manifestation of God), the Transfiguration, the Entrance into Jerusalem, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Ascension, the Falling of the Holy Spirit upon Apostles, and the Assumption.

The fourth row. While the icons of the third row are peculiar illustrations to the New⁷ Testament, the fourth row⁷ introduces us the times of the Old Testament Church. The Prophets who vaticinated the future - the Messiah and the Virgin who would give birth to Christ - are painted here. The icon of the Mother of God "Oranta". or "The praying", which shows the Most-pure Virgin praying with Her hands lifted up to Heaven with the Infant on Her bosom, is not accidentally placed in the center of this row. The fifth row. This row is called the "Forefathers' row". Its icons send us back to even earlier times. The Forefathers from Adam to Moses are painted here, The "Old Testament Trinity" is placed in the center - it is the symbol of the Pre-eternal Council of the Holy Trinity about the self-sacrifice of God the Word for the atonement of the man's Fall.

The top of the iconostasis is crowned with the Holy Cross.

But not every church has such an arrangement of the iconostasis. In Old Russia's churches the type of five-circle iconostasis was dominant but the number of rows could be reduced even to only one with the necessary⁷ icon of "The Mystical Supper" above the Holy Doors.