The Sacred Mysteries of Icon Painting: Where and How to Learn to Paint Holy Faces

On April 12, Orthodox believers celebrate the Resurrection of Christ. Belarusians celebrate this day with prayer in churches, which are especially decorated. One of the essential attributes of any church, be it majestic cathedrals or small village churches, is the icon.

Elena Bormotova explains who creates them, how they are created, and whether it is possible to learn to paint holy faces.

Icon painting is a special branch of church art. It requires an artistic foundation, even a minimal one: a knowledge of composition and proportion. This is taught in children's art school, and they also train the hand. Therefore, this experience will definitely come in handy.

Tatyana Glavinskaya-Faas, a student in the icon painting department of the Minsk Theological Seminary:

"In icon painting, everything must be done gradually, as is probably the case in any art. We begin with the usual patterns used in church painting. Then come the garments. The next stage is the personal part—the arms and legs. And the final stage is the face. Once we've mastered each stage, we can begin painting a full-fledged icon and paint the entire thing. Without these small stages, we cannot achieve a good result."

There are no age restrictions for icon painters. They can begin studying immediately after school or after retirement. The Minsk Theological Seminary has a shining example to follow. Several times a week, a student travels from Lida to Minsk for classes.

"It's 175 km from Lida to Minsk. I arrive during the day and leave at 9 in the evening," shared Tamara Yakubovskaya, a student in the icon painting department of the Minsk Theological School. "I've been working toward this for many years, I've found fulfillment in other professions, and then when I retired, I thought, 'Wow, I have free time.' So I devoted it to studying icon painting. I really enjoy it; I'm very happy."

There are two centers in Belarus that offer professional training for icon painters: the Minsk Theological School and the Minsk Theological Seminary, located in Zhirovichi. Contemporary sacred images are created under the vaults of this ancient spiritual monastery. With precise, subtle movements, the faces, halos, and vestments of saints are created.

The icon painting training consists of practically individual lessons, focusing on canonical religious painting—the golden classics of icon painting. These are the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries, based on the Byzantine and Old Russian schools of icon painting.

All ecclesiastical art originated in the great Byzantine Empire—an Orthodox country where icons, frescoes, theology, and teaching were born. From there, the faith spread.

Priest Alexei Shishko, head of the icon painting workshop at the Minsk Theological School

Icon painting is a religious art where the author's name is unknown. Only through chronicles have the names of Theophanes the Greek, Andrei Rublev, and Dionysius reached us. Incidentally, icons were also painted by many artists whose works are now part of the golden register of world art: Mikhail Vrubel, Vasily Perov, and Viktor Vasnetsov (the same one who painted the iconic "Alyonushka," "Bogatyrs," and "Ivan Tsarevich on the Gray Wolf").

You don't need to leave Belarus to see Vasnetsov's iconography. The iconostasis of one of the oldest wooden churches in our country, the Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Valevka, is a sacred work by Vasnetsov and his students. It came to us from Warsaw after the Poles destroyed the Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Church where it had previously stood.

The Church of Sts. Peter and Paul is a model of traditional wooden architecture, a treasure of our national spirituality. It is over 340 years old. It was built by local craftsmen using ancient techniques: it was constructed without a single nail and delicately blended into the natural landscape. This was traditional for Belarusian church builders. Before beginning construction, they studied the terrain, taking into account the relief and climate.

The church was originally built as a Dominican monastery; it was rebuilt in 1726 and has remained unchanged since. This is how we see it today. The church was converted to Orthodox Christianity in 1830. During its entire existence—more than three centuries—the church never closed.

Vasnetsov's brother participated in the carving of the wooden iconostasis. It's a remarkable feat—two brothers worked together to create the iconostasis we have.

Monuments of iconographic art serve as the basis for modern images. Ancient techniques for creating sacred works are also used today: mineral paints, semiprecious and precious stones. Iconographers grind natural minerals and stones into powder. Then, they apply the precious pigment to the panel.

Icon with a Gold Background

The golden background remains the classic hallmark of the holy image. It symbolizes divine light, eternity and sanctity. Gold also gilds fragments of garments, ornamental borders, the fine rays and wings of angels.

To ensure the icon’s longevity, the finished work is sealed with olifa — a natural drying oil that nourishes the mineral colours so the holy faces neither fade nor darken across the centuries, just as the Byzantine and ancient Russian icons that remain their eternal models.