Icon and Devotion: Sacred Spaces in Imperial Russia

London: Reaktion Books, 2002. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. First Edition. Hardcover. 9 1/4" X 7 3/8". 416pp. Presents nicely in protective archival sleeved dust jacket. Light shelfwear to dust jacket, with light surface scratching and gentle bumping to head of spine. Bound in textured black paper over boards with spine lettered in gilt. Gentle bumping to head of spine. Binding is firm and sound. Pages are clean and unmarked. A very presentable first edition of this first extensive presentation in Enlgish of the making and meaning of Russian icons.

ABOUT THIS BOOK:
Icon and Devotion offers the first extensive presentation in English of the making and meaning of Russian icons. The craft of icon-making is set into the context of forms of worship that emerged in the Russian Orthodox Church in the mid-seventeenth century. Oleg Tarasov shows how icons have held a special place in Russian consciousness because they represented idealized images of Holy Russia. He also looks closely at how and why icons were made. Wonder-working saints and the leaders of such religious schisms as the Old Believers appear in these pages, which are illustrated in halftones with miniature paintings, lithographs and engravings never before published in the English-speaking world.

By tracing the artistic vocabulary, techniques and working methods of icon painters, Tarasov shows how icons have been integral to the history of Russian art, influenced by folk and mainstream currents alike. As well as articulating the specifically Russian piety they invoke, he analyzes the significance of icons in the cultural life of modern Russia in the context of popular prints and poster design. (Publisher).