A COMPENDIUM OF 500 CANONICAL IMPRINTS AND TRANSFERS OF THE 15 - 19th CENTURIES

The work is titled “Book of Icon Patterns: the authentic prorisi and perevody of Russian icons of the 15-19th centuries.” The text has been edited by G.B. Markelov, who is known in Russia as a fine scholar, icon-painter and member of the Ancient Literature Department of The Russian Literature Research Institute (also called Pushkinskii Dom). The two volumes comprising the book contain 500 old drawings which have been for many years searched out at various libraries, museums, archives and private collections. For now this book is the amplest atlas of high-quality specimens of Old Russian drawing technique, the technique which has never been thoroughly studied and duely appreciated.

Icon prorisi and perevody -- imprints and transfers -- which could be also translated as “reverse” and “direct” patterns respectively -- are drawings on paper which meticulously reproduce the outlines of icon compositions. Prorisi and perevody served as an additional source for creating strictly canonical images to many a generation of Russian icon-painters.

The book contains old iconographical subjects as well as subjects used in modern services. They are arranged according to the commonly accepted clerical hierarchy of images: the Holy Trinity, The Saviour, the Virgin, St.John the Baptist, the Apostles, the Prophets and other characters of the Old Testament, the main Church Festiavals, the most prominent saints, the female saints, the parable episodes, etc. Many icons are presented right next to other versions of the same iconographical “type” which sometimes reveal essential stylistic and theological discrepances. Each pattern is reproduced in its full size and that renders the book a valuable source comparable to a facsimile edition. The majority of patterns have never been published before.

The plates are preceded by a Preface which provides information on history of paper pattern practice in Old Russian Art, narrates about the methods of making and using prorisi and perevody in traditional icon painting and
includes bibliographical reference and a glossary of special terms. Each plate is followed by a corresponding attribution and a reference to its present location. A special section gives iconographical comments which clarify the meaning and the subject-matter of each depiction. The book also contains various kinds of indexes for any kind of useful reference. The Russian text is always followed by the full English translation.

ISBN 5-89059-004-9

You can read the books original fragments in russian.
Follow to russian version of this page and choose additional bookmarks in the next line.