Icons on metal. The Icon of the Mother of God Is Worthy (Chopped)

Good day to all, here, I remembered a story that happened to me in my distant childhood.
I live in a quiet town, Yakhroma. There are private houses near the church, our old residents live in them, they keep cattle, in general they live like ordinary villagers. At that time, I lived in a 5-storey building with my parents not far from the church. My family then went to the village there to buy goat milk from local grandmothers, and we bought milk from a grandmother named Pasha. This grandmother's son went into the army, and just the other day he was supposed to return. It was July, her son returned, his name was Vlad. Vlad was a pretty strong young man, he served in military intelligence, he returned with the first Chechen one, it was just beginning then. He was quite rude, self-confident, in short, the army made a real soldier out of him. Baba Pasha was a very religious woman, for all church holidays she and my grandmother are already at the service in the church at dawn. Well, everywhere in her house, in every corner there was an icon and an icon lamp. Pasha's husband died a long time ago, she managed the household and raised her son alone. Now, as they say, with God's help she began to build an extension to the house, they say her son needs a bigger room, otherwise there will be nowhere to marry and live with his wife! And somehow Vlad returned from work drunk, angry, it seems like he was deprived of his bonus for something there, so he got drunk out of anger and gave up on work. His mother never saw him drunk, since he did not drink at all, not that he drank, but generally did not tolerate alcohol. And then here's to you, well, she pounced on him, they say, what are you doing, ruining your health, well, and something like that. Vlad was already on his nerves, and then his mother, well, he yelled stupidly, cursed everyone, and out of anger took what was at hand and threw it into a corner, work will return. The ax broke the glass on the icon and from the blow of the ax the icon cracked from above. Vlad went to bed, and his mother took the icon and was crying, the icon was old, it was bought even before the revolution, Vlad, hearing his mother's cry, flew into the room, saw that his mother had an icon broken in her hands, and grinned, saying that you were crying over this piece of wood , took the icon and threw it out the window, on the street, and went to sleep on. Mother, after all this confusion, went to pick up the icon, but the icon is not there. Well, all upset, I went to sleep too. In the morning she tells my grandmother that she had a dream where the Mother of God tells her that her son should go to church and repent. Well, my grandmother offered to tell everything to her son and do as he was told in a dream. So Pasha did, to which Vlad laughed in her face and added that he would not go to church, where everything was bought, and where the priests were building their dachas with other people's money. Three days later, the son was found dead in the annex, which he helped to build, he was killed or killed with an ax on the head. And in the late afternoon, having come to the church, Pasha saw her icon, which stood in the corner of the church, and caked blood emerged from the crack, the priest said that the children had brought this icon from the street.

It turns out that there were not so few such icons produced, and the goal was simple: it was necessary to fill the shortage of popular and inexpensive religious subjects that are eagerly bought by parishioners of temples and pilgrims. But besides icons on paper, you can find many icons on metal.

Antique printed icons on tin were especially in demand, they were an example of picturesqueness, brightness, entourage. New technological possibilities of printing and embossing on metal gave a striking visual effect, favorably distinguished ancient metal icons from cursive provincial tempera icons and podkladny oil icons. Metal icons were not afraid of the effects of the atmosphere, they resisted burning candles falling on them, they could be wiped and washed, and most importantly, they cost little money.

The 19th century gave birth to many icons on metal, but, alas, even today they can be considered rarities. Cheap icons also received a not very careful attitude towards them, proceeding from the old saying “what is easy to get, so it is easy to part with it”, and therefore it is already difficult to find tin icons in good or perfect condition.

It was possible to buy icons on metal in the capital of Russia and in other cities. All the innovations, all the technical innovations known at that time, were manifested in the production technology of the tin icon. This is the production of a thin sheet of metal, and its coating with another alloy - electroplating, and precise stamping, that is, giving volume to an iron icon, a sheet of metal. The method of applying an image with special paints is chromolithography. The finely relief embossing, very complex in its design, which today surprises the modern viewer, looks like holography, and one can only imagine how such amazing works of art plunged into joyful shock and admiration of the people of the 19th century, who are accustomed to seeing the icon not so elegant and festive, especially since, having entered into a competitive struggle with the tin icon, the old cursive icon rather went in the opposite direction, regressed, became "not fashionable"!

But in the production of antique tin icons by the same Jacot and Bonnaker, there is another very important element that is usually omitted when talking about a printed icon!

Ancient pictorial icons almost always "dance" in the form of a board, in its linear dimensions. There are no and there were no standards, and even if we say "an icon with a lectern", this does not mean at all that another old icon of a lectern will fit into the same icon case as the first one!

Old wooden hand-painted icons can have the shape of a trapezoid, a rhombus, and the difference in the linear dimensions of two opposite sides sometimes differ by several centimeters! And of course you will never match the riza to the existing icon - everything is too individual, everything is completely different, does not fit, cannot be reduced to a common dimensional denominator.

Another thing is the old tin icons, the production of which was put on stream. To win a buyer here it was necessary to make completely different efforts, use strict standards, observe the specified parameters ...

When examining the old tin icon Jaco Moscow, one can see how precisely its dimensions are maintained, how perfectly precision the wooden board on which the tin icon is fixed, how filigree the stamping and embossing are done, how the drawing is clear and multicolored!

All this suggests that tin icons literally forced the manufacturer to carefully approach the production of each component of the icon's detail, to each technological process. As a result of this approach, we are still surprised by the icons of Jacot and Bonnaker, proving that Russia possessed the knowledge, experience and ability to make magnificent flow products, which in this case were ancient printed icons on tin!

But the icons on the tin eventually fell into disrepair. Old metal icons were removed to attics and sheds, where they underwent regular corrosion, faded from the sun, moldy and deteriorated.

Chromolithographic paper icons entered the competition with icons on metal. Among the manufacturers of paper icons glued to wood, the E. Fesenko factory and the I. Til factory, located in Odessa, stand out.

At the very end of the 19th century, the Jaco and Bonnaker factory in Moscow (they are often called the Jaco Moscow icons, Bonnaker icons) actually owns a monopoly on the production of icons on tin. Jaco and Bonnaker invite the best masters Mstera and Palekh to work on samples of their "iron icons" ... Indeed, the accuracy, expressiveness, extraordinary elegance of the tin icons from the Jacot and Bonnaker factory amaze the viewer, it seems that this is the only way the saints were supposed to look! The most amazing thing is that in this commercial battle on the religious market, icons painted with paints began to be played, and therefore the supporters of traditional icon painting went to all sorts of tricks that allowed them to produce
icons faster, bigger, cheaper. The famous “poplar women”, “foils”, “common icons”, “sub-handles”, “icons of rubella”, that is, cursive icons, are products of the era of battles for the market, but the speed and flow method degrade the quality of handwritten icons.

Years pass in this competitive confrontation, at times it seems that a cheap paper icon and an icon on metal have defeated a pictorial icon, but this was not the case!

The society, which at first rushed to buy beautiful and elegant printed icons, at the end of the same 19th century began to express concern about the fate of the original handwritten production of holy images. In 1901, Emperor Nicholas II himself issued a special decree making it possible to create a "Committee of Trusteeship of the Russian Icon" under the leadership of Count S.D. Sheremetyev!

And when at the beginning of the next, XX century, the production of printed icons, in fact, got out of any control, the decree of the Holy Synod completely banned the printing of icons at monasteries and temples. The production of icons on tin was also prohibited, and the general censorship increased, which had the task of preserving the traditions of Russian icon painting and protecting the production of icons from any Western influence.

But no decrees and decisions had an effect on the same Jacot and Bonnaker: the tin icon continued to be produced until the revolution, which put an end to the traditions of producing not only pictorial icons, but also icons on paper and icons on tin ...

Only in 1949 a new generation of printed icons, obtained in the printing house of the Novodevichy Convent by the silk-screening method, will be reproduced, but this, as they say, is a completely different story.

The classification of icons on metal is approximately the following.

There are icons made in relief or bas-relief without the use of a paint layer; made with artistic paints on a metal base; made with artistic paints on "gold" (the basis of the icon board) and in mixed media.

Relief and bas-relief icons on metal have been known since the first centuries of Christianity. Carved reliefs, casting, chased icons have survived in their tradition to this day.

Among the iconic techniques of performing with artistic paints on metal, the enamel technique can be recognized as the best. The fusion of quartz sand and coloring pigment in a special way was known in antiquity, so it is quite possible to admit the use of this technique from the first centuries of Christianity. At first, the most widespread technique was cloisonné enamel, where thin gold partitions were made on a prepared icon plate to fill in color. At the same time, these plates created a peculiar pattern. After firing the enamel, a very strong and durable paint coating was obtained, the only drawback is fragility.

In ancient Russian art, cloisonné enamel was rarely used and mainly in decorative solutions. Since the 17th century, enamel without partitions has become widespread in Russia, where the application of paints was similar to icon painting. One of the centers of this enamel was Rostov the Great, hence the name - Rostov enamel.

The artistic potential of this technique is enormous, and why it is not in demand today is not clear. Modern enamels make it possible to obtain very beautiful saturated colors. High lightfastness, weather resistance suggest the use of these paints for the facade icons of the temple.

Since the 17th century, icons made with oil paints on metal appear in Russia, but they have become widespread since the middle of the 19th century. Unfortunately, this writing technique has a number of disadvantages: the adhesion of the paint layer to the metal weakens over time, metal corrosion - rust of tin or copper oxide affects the color of the icon, darkening of the oil, etc. This technique is recommended by many "experts" as a facade icon - that's where the fruit of delusion is. Tin as a basis for facade painting is generally not suitable, it has the lowest adhesion to the paint layer. The situation is slightly better for copper, and even better for aluminum. This is due to the presence of an oxide film in copper and aluminum, which creates additional "looseness" of the surface. Therefore, when preparing a sheet of copper or aluminum for painting, it is not necessary to polish them to a shine - it is enough to degrease the surface. Experience shows that oil paints themselves are not very suitable for painting on metal. For a long time, special paints for metal based on acrylic resins (not water-based!) Have been developed.

Another technique for working on metal is gold overlay on copper. This complex and rare technique is also called "fire gilding". The drawing is done with gold dissolved in mercury. Upon further heating, the mercury "evaporates", and the gold is firmly combined with the metal. Today, rarely anyone uses such technology, more often they use the method of applying glue or varnish "on touch".

Metal, and in particular gold, was used not only as a background or base. The effect of reflection of light passing through the paint layer was noticed by icon painters for a long time and was sometimes very successfully applied. Unfortunately, there are not many icons painted specially with this effect.

The use of mixed media in metal work allows you to get very good and beautiful results.

Vladimir KHVOROV
Based on materials from Internet resources

Icons provided by the collector Vladimir BOYKO

Help from Wikipedia

Relief- a type of fine art, one of the main types of sculpture, in which everything depicted is created with the help of volumes protruding from the plane of the background. It is performed with the use of contractions in perspective, usually viewed from the front. The relief is thus the opposite of a circular sculpture. A figured or ornamental image is made on a plane of stone, clay, metal, wood using molding, carving and embossing.

Architectural reliefs (on pediments, friezes, slabs) differ depending on the purpose.

Relief types:

Bas-relief(fr. bas-relief - low relief) - a type of sculpture in which a convex image protrudes above the background plane, as a rule, by no more than half of the volume.
High relief(fr. haut-relief - high relief) - a type of sculpture in which the convex image protrudes above the background plane by more than half of the volume.
Counter relief(from Latin contra - against and "relief") - a kind of in-depth relief, which is a "negative" of the bas-relief. It is used in seals and in forms (matrices) to create bas-relief images and intaglios.
Koilanaglyph(or en creux (ankryo)) - a type of in-depth relief, i.e. a contour cut out on a plane. It was mainly used in the architecture of Ancient Egypt, as well as in Ancient Eastern and Antique glyptics.

The Icon of the Mother of God Is Worthy (Chopped) On July 11, 980, a young monk prayed in a cell on Mount Athos in front of the "Merciful" icon of the Mother of God. Archangel Gabriel appeared to him under the guise of a monk and taught him a new song in honor of the Mother of God. The icon received a new name "It is worthy to eat" at the beginning of the song taught by the Archangel, was transferred to Kareya (the capital of Athos) in the Protat church and became famous for many miracles. Archimandrite Gerasim, the abbot of the Russian Panteleimon monastery, sent a copy of this miraculous icon, which was not yet known in Russia at that time, through the Elabuga merchant Kirill Ivanovich Stakheev to the abbess of the Arzamas Alekseevsk monastery, Praskovya Alexandrovna Shchetinina. On the icon itself there is an inscription about this: "Before this miraculous icon, St. Archangel Gabriel sang: It is truly worthy to eat, as truly and so on. It is located on St. Mount Athos in the Protat Church, forwarded as a blessing from the Russian Monastery of St. Panteleimon, which is on St. Mount Athos, Alekseevskaya Arzamas Monastery in 1853 ". For the eternal commemoration of his kind, Kirill Ivanovich also donated a silver gilded robe for this icon, which the sisters of the Alekseevsk community adorned with pearls and stones. With the advent of Soviet power, the process of plundering and destruction of this monastery began, and in the fall of 1924, by the decision of the Provincial Executive Committee, a resolution was adopted to close the monastery. The sisters were evicted to the Nicholas Monastery, and over time the churches were desecrated and desecrated. The icon of the Mother of God "It is worthy to eat" also suffered. The precious robe was removed, and the icon itself was cut with an ax. The theomachists especially mutilated the face of the Most Holy Theotokos. The image was found in 1997 by residents of the city in the outbuilding of an old house and brought to the monastery. Only the central part of the icon has survived, and even that is all "mutilated": on the face with an ax someone cut out the face and eyes of the Mother of God. In the monastery, the icon was renewed overnight, after the sisters took him to the procession. The very next day after the renovation, the icon was pacified. She was placed in an icon case and hung in the lower church of the Epiphany Church of the monastery. The image gained many admirers - people with souls wounded like the face of the Virgin. The people nicknamed the icon "cut up". Soon another miracle happened: after the renewal of the colors of the image, new ones began to appear over the cut-out atheists' eyes of the Mother of God. As if an invisible icon painter carefully deduced them with his brush, for the edification of everyone that God cannot be mocked. The miraculous display of the eyes heightened the interest in the icon. Many pilgrims and parishioners resort to the miraculous icon of the Mother of God "It is worthy to eat" and receive healing and help. There are known cases of healing from eye diseases and headaches. An interesting testimony of the slave of God Lyudmila from the Orenburg region. At dawn, in a subtle dream, the Lord appeared to her, showed her the way and showed a gray goose in a cloud. A voice was heard: "Look for the city where geese were raised for bargaining and fighting. There is a temple, a miraculous Icon at the temple. You will find a goose, you will find a city, you will find a nunnery, you will find the Miraculous-Chopped Icon, you will gain revelation, you will receive a blessing." She woke up on her knees in tears. She searched for a long time, until the publishing house pointed out to her the city of Arzamas. The women came to Arzamas themselves by car from Orenburg. There was no end to consolation and joy! It is not for nothing that the other name of the icon "It is worthy is" - "Merciful" ...

The chronicles speak very sparingly. We only know that he was a monk, we know that he painted several cathedrals, often not just one, but together with other famous icon painters: Theophanes the Greek, Prokhor and Daniel. We know that on days when he did not study icons (on holidays), the Monk Andrew indulged in spiritual contemplation. We know that he lived and died in the Spaso-Andronikov Monastery.

There is very little data, and they are often contradictory, which provides ample ground for endless disputes between historians and art historians. The same is the case with the icons associated with Andrei Rublev. But the main thing is important: the Church honors the memory of the Monk Andrei Rublev precisely as a holy icon painter. And he honors the icons associated with his name. These icons speak better than any words.

The riddle of the icon painter Andrei Rublev

Reference: Andrei Rublev is one of the most mysterious people of his time. We don't know much about him. It is only known that the years of his life coincided with a difficult period in Russian history. But even in conditions of hunger, hardship, the invasion of the Tatars, great works of painting were created, which continue to delight our contemporaries. Until now, the exact number of his works remains a mystery; disputes about the authorship of some of them continue. His remains were also found under unusual circumstances in the Andronikov Spaso Monastery. Where people who had special services to the Church were buried. The great icon painter was canonized by the Church as a saint.

The famous director Tarkovsky shot the film "Andrei Rublev", where he presented his vision of the life of an artist and icon painter. In the film, the events of Russian history pass before the eyes of Andrei Rublev and through the prism of his perception.

There is very little documentary evidence about Andrei Rublev. It is believed that he was born into a family of artisans. His work corresponded to the traditions of the Moscow principality. He painted the Annunciation Church in the Moscow Kremlin. Andrei Rublev died during the plague in 1482.

A number of his works are now attributed to the brushes of the workers of the Artel of Andrei Rublev or other authors - his contemporaries. But it cannot be denied that the work of Andrei Rublevo had a huge impact on the entire school of painting of that time.

"Trinity" by Andrei Rublev

One of the most famous works of Andrei Rublev is the Trinity icon. Her story is amazing. In 1422, a terrible famine struck in Russia. The icon depicts three angels sitting at a table. On the table they have a bowl with the head of a calf. Angels sit against the backdrop of an unusual landscape. This is a house, a tree and a mountain. The house is the chambers of Abraham, the tree is the Mamre oak, and the mountain is Mount Moriah. The Temple Mount or Mount Moriah towered over Jerusalem, it was there that the Jerusalem Temple stood, the place for which King David acquired from the Jebusite Aravna (Orna). The Mamre oak is the very tree under which Abraham met the Lord. Abraham met three angels of the Lord who appeared to him disguised as weary travelers. He invited them to rest in the shade of an oak tree. The oak still stands in its place.

Russian pilgrim, abbot Daniel wrote about him - That saint oak next to the road; when you go there, on the right hand; and stands, handsome, on a high mountain. And around its roots below God paved with white marble like a church floor. Paved beside all that good oak; in the middle of this platform a holy oak grew out of this stone, amazing! This oak is not very tall, very spreading and dense with branches, and there are many fruits on it. His branches bent low to the ground, so that the husband can, standing on the ground, reach for his branches. Its circumference in the thickest place is two sazhens, and the height of its trunk to the branches is one and a half sazhens. It is surprising and wonderful that for so many years a tree has stood on such a high mountain and is not damaged, not crumbled!

The plot “The Hospitality of Abraham” is the basis of the icon. It most fully reveals the dogmatic teaching about the Holy Trinity. The unity of the Holy Trinity and the grace of communion with God are revealed in the amazing work of Andrei Rublev, one of the few who exactly belonged to his brush. The authorship of "Trinity" is beyond doubt.

There are two lists of icons.

1. Copy of Godunov, ordered by the tsar in 1598-1600.
2. Copy of Baranov and Chirikov 1926-1928 for the 1929 International Icon Restoration Exhibition.

Both icons are now in the iconostasis of the Trinity Cathedral of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, where the icon itself was located until it was transferred to the Tretyakov Gallery.

Now "Trinity" is in the hall of ancient Russian painting of the Tretyakov Gallery. For her, a special cabinet was created that maintains the desired level of humidity and temperature in order to preserve a unique work of art.

On the feast of the Trinity, the icon is transferred to the church-museum, earlier there was talk of transferring the "Trinity" to the diocese, but it was decided to abandon this idea and the painting belongs to the Tretyakov Gallery. The icon needs special care and temperature control. People continue to admire this stunning example of ancient Russian painting that has survived to this day.

(by clicking the icon you can see it in a higher resolution)

Icons by Andrey Rublev

Vladimirskaya Mother of God