Analyzing Religious Icons
As described in the text, religious icons fulfilled a variety of purposes including education of illiterate worshippers, mystical symbolism, and as portable objects of faith. Continue to practice reading images in this exercise as you consider the role icons played in both Eastern Orthodox and Russian religious practice.
According to Lauren Cross of the Museum of Russian Icons, ‘The Orthodox Church teaches that an icon is a two-way door of communication that not only shows us a person or an event but makes it present.’ Use Visual Source 10.2 to explain how the icon might help to bring the church ‘closer’ to a believer.
Visual sources, like all historical documents, are subject to differing interpretations. Choose either Visual Source 10.1 or 10.3 and analyze that image from two different points of view (e.g., Christian and Islam or Byzantine and Western Christian).
Use the Internet to find an image of a Russian icon from the same era (500–1300). What are the symbols and meanings in the image you found? How are they similar to or different from the visual sources in Chapter 10?