Annual Kent dur Russell Lecture with Dr Wendy Salmond
To Honor and Adorn: Icons and their Covers in late Imperial Russia
Free. Registration required.
The practice of adorning icons with metal covers is today one of the least understood aspects of the icon’s history and function. As older icons came to be seen as works of art in the early twentieth century, their covers became obstacles to aesthetic appreciation and were removed. Yet simultaneously the covered icon experienced a renaissance in Russia. This talk explores the flourishing of icon adornment in the last decades of the Russian Empire. From the jeweled frames of Fabergé to the humblest confections of foil and wax flowers, the covered icons of the early twentieth century offer a fascinating insight into the Byzantine custom of doing honor to the prototype.
Wendy Salmond is a scholar of Russian and early Soviet art, architecture, and design. Born in New Zealand, she received her PhD at the University of Texas at Austin and now holds the Martha Weidlein Masters Professor in Art at Chapman University in Orange, CA. A prolific writer and translator, her publications include Arts and Crafts in Late Imperial Russia, Treasures into Tractors: The Selling of Russia’s Cultural Heritage, 1918-1938, and “The Faceted Chamber and the Meanings of Restoration in the 19th Century.” She is the editor of works on the sculptor Sergei Konenkov, the Bolshevik sales of Russian art in the 1920s and 1930s, and the Journal of Icon Studies published by The Icon Museum and Study Center. Her current book project is Russian Icons in America. The Fate of Orthodox Painting, 1917-39.
To Honor and Adorn: Icons and their Covers in late Imperial Russia
Free. Registration required.
The practice of adorning icons with metal covers is today one of the least understood aspects of the icon’s history and function. As older icons came to be seen as works of art in the early twentieth century, their covers became obstacles to aesthetic appreciation and were removed. Yet simultaneously the covered icon experienced a renaissance in Russia. This talk explores the flourishing of icon adornment in the last decades of the Russian Empire. From the jeweled frames of Fabergé to the humblest confections of foil and wax flowers, the covered icons of the early twentieth century offer a fascinating insight into the Byzantine custom of doing honor to the prototype.
Wendy Salmond is a scholar of Russian and early Soviet art, architecture, and design. Born in New Zealand, she received her PhD at the University of Texas at Austin and now holds the Martha Weidlein Masters Professor in Art at Chapman University in Orange, CA. A prolific writer and translator, her publications include Arts and Crafts in Late Imperial Russia, Treasures into Tractors: The Selling of Russia’s Cultural Heritage, 1918-1938, and “The Faceted Chamber and the Meanings of Restoration in the 19th Century.” She is the editor of works on the sculptor Sergei Konenkov, the Bolshevik sales of Russian art in the 1920s and 1930s, and the Journal of Icon Studies published by The Icon Museum and Study Center. Her current book project is Russian Icons in America. The Fate of Orthodox Painting, 1917-39.