Auction houses have always sold them at even record prices, but in addition to the great masterpieces there is a market of medium quality that also reaches the homes of less wealthy people. Often, however, these are objects to be kept at home only for a religious cult. But if on the one hand the Orthodox faithful are fond of icons as family objects, on the other the number of non-believers who are objects of icons is growing more and more.
The word "icon" comes from the Greek and means "image" and is usually a painting on a wooden table depicting Christ, a saint, a Madonna, an angel or any other sacred subject. But no one knows when they were actually born.
But on the market we can find everything, very ancient, recent or even non-authentic works. This is because in reality there is a very strong demand, and in this regard for an Orthodox there is a creed "What distinguishes real icons from other paintings is their spiritual life, which can only exist in a climate of faith".
The faithful of the Eastern Orthodox Church still maintain an attitude of veneration with these images, which they kiss every day in Church or at home, light a candle and kneel in front of it in prayer. For many of them their destiny is in the hands of the icon which has been handed down for entire generations.
The cult of icons still survives today in Greece as in Russia, from which a Russian legend says that the first image was the one that appeared on a piece of linen soaked in water that Christ passed over his face, imprinting his features. but icons began to appear in the churches of the Eastern Empire from the beginning of the fifteenth century. Later, in the XNUMXth century, the Byzantine Church decreed that the subjects to be painted should only be of a spiritual nature, such as Jesus Christ or the Virgin Mary.
But who made them? They were carpenter craftsmen, who cut wood, preferably linden or cypress. Then to avoid the curvatures, they wrapped it and let it mature for up to six years. Then a specialist intervened who spread over it up to 12 layers of a mixture made of alabaster and glue, called "gypsum" and smoothing everything with pumice stone to make it perfectly smooth and non-porous. The next task was that of the draftsman who sketched the image he wanted to represent, and a gilder covered the outside with sheets of rolled gold, polishing it with an animal's tooth or a piece of agate. Everything so glittered perfectly. Finally came the moment of the painter, or iconographer, who used no more than five colours, all obtained with natural pigments which were mixed with egg yolk and diluted with fig milk or honey. The iconographer had to submit to strict rules established by the Church, but he was free to arrange and color the elements as he preferred, to the point that no two icons would ever be identical.
After the 1913th century, iconographic art lost its importance, also because the soot and dirt deposited by candles and incense had also penetrated the colour, thus obscuring the original image. Fortunately, with the discovery of solvents – last century – it was possible to recover many of these works, even if at first there was the fear of completely or partially removing the colour, this did not happen and the result was surprising. Already in the early twentieth century, precious icons were found and restored, to the point that a major exhibition was organized in Moscow. It was XNUMX and it was a real fever that infected collectors but also artists, particularly struck by the modernity of these works on wood. One of the greatest masters of the period, Henri Matisse, was almost struck by the beauty to the point of recalling its technique in his painting.
But the large profits that derive from the trade of these sacred images also represent an irresistible invitation to forgery, therefore only a great expert can tell us if an icon is truly authentic.
