ABSTRACT
The icon was an art form developed by the Byzantine Greeks of the early Christian painting of the late Roman Empire. By the time icon painting was brought to Rus in the late-tenth century, however, the Byzantines had developed a complex theology of the holy image that retreated from naturalistic depiction of the material world toward greater abstraction. An icon can be considered holy only if it represents faithfully the holy personage or scene intended. When an Orthodox believer prays to a saint depicted on an icon, he or she participates in a mystical connection established by the image with the holy person addressed. Each saint or canonical scene is painted with individualizing attributes of clothing, facial features, gestures, and background, which, together with golden halos behind the heads of the holy and an obligatory inscription, fulfills the Orthodox requirement of iconographic recognisability. An icon can be considered holy only if it represents faithfully the holy personage or scene intended.
