An Icon. Icon painting techniques...

Icon painting appears in Russia simultaneously with the adoption of Christianity from Byzantium, and from there comes a special system of depiction with the help of tempera paint.

Tempera - painting with paints, in which the binder is most often an emulsion of water and egg yolk, less often from a vegetable or animal glue diluted in water with the addition of oil or oil varnish. However Iconography as painting is not only the use of special paint, but also a whole technological system that has been developing over the centuries and largely determines the unusual language inherent in this type of art.

An icon, as a rule, consists of four to five layers, the place and purpose of which is predetermined: base, primer, paint layer, protective layer. It may have a frame made of metals or any other materials, which not only protects the paint layer from external influences, but also plays a significant role in creating an artistic image

The basis in icon painting is most often a wooden board. To strengthen it from the corrosion that occurs when the temperature changes, special wedges are cut into the backdrop, and a thinnest canvas -"pavoloka" is glued to the front side.. Some icons come without a "pavoloka", more often later and inexpensive things were painted in this way. Very rarely, only canvas served as the basis for an icon, but such examples are rare in the history of art (for example, double-sided tablets from St. Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod). The base on the front side can be smooth, but more often the central part of the board, where the image is actually located, deepens. The resulting frame is called the ark.

The primer for the yolk tempera is a special composition of chalk or alabaster powder and flesh, sturgeon and similar adhesives. The primer made of these materials was applied to the base in two layers while still warm and was sanded each time it dries. There are many icons, some or all of the surface of which is decorated with relief ornaments made in various ways: it can be chasing on gilded levkas, carving, stucco reliefs, and prints in damp ground.

After preparation for painting, a contour drawing of the future composition was applied on levkas - "to trace clearly" (a very common technique in which the image was scratched). Since tempera, by virtue of its natural characteristics, is one of the most decorative techniques, over time, special methods of writing were developed that made it possible to create a kind of volumetric image to the extent that was necessary in such a form of art as icon painting, which is based primarily on philosophical Christian traditions of world perception, which gave rise to both a special reverse perspective system and symbolic perception of color.

The artist began to work with paints by consistently painting the ground areas bounded by the contours of the drawing in basic colors. Such a technique was called a "roskrysh". Then, as it dries, the contours of the drawing, the highlighting, were sequentially applied, with the help of which color and volume were created. To give more volume to the figures and to deepen the main color in the shadows, the thinnest glaze layers of paint were applied, called by the ancient Russian artists "zatinki" or "splash".

The techniques of highlighting and overlaying "zatinki" have been constantly changing throughout the development of easel tempera painting. For example, starting from the 17th century, "zatinki" to enhance the volume of the image prevails over the whitening.

The overlay of paint on different icons is different: on some it is very smooth, even, on others it is fractional, in separate strokes. In the first case, the waxing is done with ocher, in the second - with the use of lead white, the opaque properties of which make the strokes more noticeable. Ocher strokes merge well together, are easily shaded and, as it were, "fused" together, therefore, with such an even ocher, they said "to write with melts"

In the 19th and 20th centuries, when icon painters created works imitating the old ones, they significantly complicated the technique of writing naked parts of the body, or, as they used to say in the old days, facial writing (from the word "face", that is, face)..

The finished and well-dried painting was covered with a protective layer of drying oil or oil varnish. Unfortunately, such a coating darkens over time, making the image itself poorly distinguishable, which is why in Ancient Russia the icons were repeatedly renewed, in fact, it was being repainted.

From the book: An Introduction to Practical Art History Examination and evaluation of Antiques

Authors: Pereyatenets V.I. and Pereyatenets I.V.

To the page "Iconography": https://www.yoursartgallery.com/iconography