Icons

I went to the art gallery last Thursday night with Jenny G.......the show was for Icons from the Romanov period of Russian history (300 years). I am fascinated with last of the Romanov's and secretly hoped that Anastasia and Alexi did escape the massacre ordered by Lenin of the their family in 1917. Sadly the two children did perish and the end of a hoped for happy ending died too. But the show was not focused on just Nicholas and Alexandra, there was 300 years of Icons represented.



The images at the gallery were beautiful yet primitive. What I found most intriguing were the Icons prior to the Western influence of Icon art. The pre Peter the Great, he was the one that ordered Russian artists to learn from western artists how to paint, Icons show images of people with dark skin, very tight curly dark hair, flat broad noses and most with brown eyes. The Icons with obvious Western influence show people with light skin, blond hair, blue eyes with long slender noses.



One other tidbit I found fascinating. The Russians believed that the Icons were windows to heaven. That a glimpse of what comes after death can be seen by honoring the images presented in the Icons.