The Icon Handbook: A Guide to Understanding Icons and the Liturgy Symbols and Practices of the Russian Orthodox Church
Although the symbolism of the Christian art of Western Europe is extensively covered in the English-language art literature, the visual clues to Russian Orthodox painting have remained obscure to those without a reading knowledge of German or Russian. Formerly a curator at Maryhill Museum of Art, Coomler has tried to make Russian Orthodox iconography more accessible by presenting 182 illustrations taken from prerevolutionary Russian sources and giving a short description of each with an explanation of the importance of the pictured saints. Interspersed throughout the text are short notes of a general nature touching on broader topics of technique, conservation, and caveats for collectors. The sketchy quality of the 174 black-and-white drawings and the modest quality of the eight color illustrations indicate that this book will serve better as a research tool for collectors and art historians than as an introduction to icons for the general reader. For larger art history collections.?David McClelland, Temple Univ. Lib., PhiladelphiaCopyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.