The Russian miracle-working icon: copies and patterns

This article examines several copies of miracle-working icons preserved in the collection of the Historical Museum. To reproduce the original accurately in its “measure and likeness ,” icon-painting patterns were employed; as a rule, these bore corresponding inscriptions. The process of taking a tracing from a venerated icon was accompanied by a special ritual, and copies produced by those participating in the event were held in particularly high esteem. In exceptional cases, such patterns were made directly by imperial decree. Many replicas record the condition of revered images at a particular moment in their history, when the originals were frequently obscured by layers of overpainting and darkened varnish. They therefore provide valuable evidence for dating these monuments in relation to the history of their restoration. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the practice of copying venerated icons with their precious revetments became widespread, with the revetments themselves reproduced pictorially. Such copies were produced both as presentation icons and as images intended for distribution, on the basis of patterns obtained by icon painters. Some materials used for copying outstanding works were acquired during their restoration. Within the museum collection, a group of drawings by N. I. Podklyuchnikov has been identified; these were executed during the large-scale restoration of icons in the Dormition Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin.

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