The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-02-10
Ikonmakers In Russia.

Ikonmakers In Russia.
The religious ceremonies attending
the burial OF the late car have awaken
ed worldwide interest in the splendors
OF the medival ceremonies and symbols
Of the Russian church, whose devotees
number so many millions An English
writer has latly visited the forest dis
tricts of the Vladimir government.
where We're manufactured yearly many
ikons or religious images, made in inii
tation of the gold and jeweled embleras
displayed in st. Petersburg.
This is an industry almost peculiar to
Russia. 1t is practiced by the pesants
in their homes, generation following
generation, as in the case Of the pesants
of the Black Forest guarding the secrets
and transmitting the skill from father
to son.
Until the middle Of the Sixteenth CEN
fury all objects connected with religious
worship in Russia were made exclusive
ly in the monastries. and for centuries
the painting and metal work Of the
church were executed by the monks
alone, who devoted all their artistic ca
pacity to the exact reproduction Of
models sanctioned by ecclesiastical au-
thority. The very slightest deviation
in form or color would have been re-
gerded as a deadly sin, and. indeed is
so still by the more rigid among the
faithful, especially the Old Believers,
the Stariveri
AS soon as permission had been grant
ed to laymen to plant trees ikons and
other sacred subjects the Council OF
Stoglaf, in 1853, gave the strictest or
ders to the bishops to supervise the
work with the utmost vigilence. and to
take care that those who undertook the
production of these sacred objects, as
well as their wives and families, should
be sober and gentel, and above all SUBJ
nit themselves to their spiritual fathers.
not only in their work but also as to
the feasts and prayers enjoined by the
church" The pesants now at work.
stalwart, venerable old men. and pic
turesque women with their serious coun
tenances--are said to be worthy decend-
ants of these early artists.
With the growth of population the
enormous demand for ikons, which are
to be found in every Russian household
has increased so rapidly that their
production has become an important
branch of trade, and, like SO many
others in Russia lis almost exclusively
in the hands Of Koustari, or peasant
workers. In the governments OF Vlad-
imir and Kursk nearly 100000 ikons
are produced annually by the peasants.
Here, as of old, In the Russian monas-
teries the most scrupulous care is TAX
en- TO reproduce the exact style of the
models recognized by the church. The
workmanship of the cheaper kinds is.
of course, extremely rude, but, never
theless, no deviation is ever made
from the steriotyped ecclesiastical style.
With these simple people the work is
not merely a trade, but almost an act
of religious worship. Nothing is more
interesting than to enter one of these
peasant homes when the whole family
is at work and to watch with what
care even the youngest will perform
his allotted task. Unlike the generality
Of peasant industries that are suspend
ed during the summer months OF agri-
cultural labor this work is carried on all
the year round. Sadly cramped for
space, as are all the peasants houses.
a corner of the dwelling room near win
dow is screened off for thewor and here
the whole family year after year will
labor patiently at their strange calling.
The painting is generally done upon
small panels Of lime or alder wood.
The coIors as we'll as the varnishes en-
ployed are native productions. but no
inducement would prevail upon the
peasants to give even the names OF the
various pigments they employ. The
same secrecy if observed by the peas
ants in other parts of Russia with re-
spect to the herbs employed in dye
ing their homespun fabrics.