Tradition in Transition: Russian Icons in the Age of the Romanovs

“In pre-revolutionary Russia, it wasn’t enough simply to create a devotional painting of the Virgin Mary, the baby Jesus or a saint. These images needed to wear a fitted coat of gold or silver that partially covered the painting. It’s called an okladand some of the works featured in ‘Tradition in Transition’…possess these shimmering, halfway surreal coverings.”

– Robert L. Pincus, San Diego Union Tribune

“Whatever their origins, humble or exalted, these icons present Western viewers with a very different approach to prayer and faith.”

– Judy Wells, The Times-Union

Tradition in Transition: Russian Icons in the Age of the Romanovs brings together 43 icons and oklads (icon covers) from three major private collections, including that of cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post. On tour for the first time, these works ranged from humble, roughly painted wooden icons of the peasant class to luxurious examples made of ivory or painted enamels and housed in gold or silver covers embellished with pearls and precious jewels.

Whether gilded or jeweled, or merely painted on plain wood, icons (sacred images of Christ, Mary, or the saints) were an essential spiritual aid for the Orthodox faithful: a focus for prayer and devotion and a conduit for divine mediation. Before the Romanovs, Russian icons hewed fairly closely to their stark Byzantine counterparts (simple lines, a flat aspect, elongated facial features), but with the ascension of the Westward-looking Tsar Peter the Great in the late 17th century, the influence of the Italian Renaissance brought a new realism, opulence, and spatial depth to their imagery. As a result, most of the Byzantine strictures gradually fell away, and by the 18thcentury elaborate icons set with jewels, pearls, and precious metals were being commissioned by the upper classes as valuable artworks in themselves. After the Bolshevik Revolution in the early 20th century, the Russian state began to divest itself of its “decadent” religious trappings, many of which were intentionally destroyed; but collectors (such as American heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post) were fortunate to be able to salvage some of the finest examples of the art of the icon.

Tradition in Transition was organized by the Hillwood Museum & Gardens in collaboration with the Steinhardt-Sherlock Trust and toured by International Arts & Artists.

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