On the History of Icon Painting in Western Siberia

Publications on the icon painting of Siberia are few. There are primarily the materials of A. I. Sulotskii, who worked in the mid-nineteenth century in the churches of Tobol'sk and in the archives with documents that were later lost, who viewed icons whose location is now unknown. ¹ Data on Siberian icons is found in articles by N. A. Abramov from the mid-nineteenth century and by P. N. Butsinskii from the end of that century. ² Scattered references to Siberian icons and the masters who painted them are included in studies of ethnographers such as N. Kostrov and A. E. Novoselov. In connection with a study of Siberian culture, A. N. Kopylov discovered additional information on Siberian icon painting in archives. ³ A short article on the Siberian folk icon was published by N. Kazarinov. ⁴ T. A Kriuchkova was interested in the history of icon painting in Eastern Siberia. The author of the present article sees her task as presenting, in general outline, the history of icon painting on the basis of the publications, documents, and productions in Western Siberia from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. ⁵