Icons, “submarines” returned to their place after repairs

In the late XIX - early XX century, a number of trends appeared in icon painting, when the simplest peasant and poor family could receive a real painted icon in their home. Painted icons have always been expensive, not created quickly. And the market and competition of icon-painting workshops drove progress. As a result, there were icons that were written on the cheapest board, often processed only on one side, and on the reverse side literally stuck sawdust after sawing. Such a board was not ground, not covered with Levkas. The board was quickly covered with monotonous, usually reddish or brown paint, the drawing was applied fragmentary and in the format of a sketch, and only those parts of the icon that were visible in the slot of the salary were prescribed in detail. Such icons are called subsurface. Icons-"submarine" (or "follow") became a mass phenomenon at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries as a response to the demand for cheap icons. In the scientific literature, they are even called “a symbol of the crisis of Russian icon painting.”.

In an earlier period, the icon was carefully and completely prescribed, and the salary was an ornament and was itself a work of art. At the end of the XIX century, salaries were massively stamped from thin tin, literally from metal plates, the thickness of which is much smaller than even the walls of cans. This allowed to speed up and reduce the cost of icon production. A cheap tin salary, a cheap writing board and a quick painting are the components of such an icon. It looked festive and rich, and not every layman could distinguish it from an expensive counterpart.

In contrast to high-quality icons, where the salaries were copper or silver, and the letter was canonical on the left-hand side with a full plot in the entire board, which was carefully selected and dried for a long time, the exposed icons of the XIX – early XX century quickly lost their festive appearance: the tin salary was oxidized, a thin layer of coating, which fell on poor-quality metal, quickly became transparent, and rust appeared. The board was heavily arched or even burst. The drawing quickly darkened due to cheap or carelessly placed on top of the olive.

Now, after 100 years (2026), such icons with a standard salary and plot are sold inexpensively - from 1000 to 5000 rubles. Rarely among them you can find a sample in good preservation. Recently, one such icon came to my workshop.

The autopsy showed that a conventional pruned spruce board was used, which was sanded on only one side. The letter is simple, fragmentary - for salary. The salary itself is significantly damaged by oxides, even though at some time it was tried to cover something.

The result is that the icon and the salary are cleaned of dust, debris, insect fragments, neatly washed. The board is slightly polished and more accurately adjusted to the salary. The salary is cleaned of dirt, rust and different layers of coating, painted with enamel under “silver” and a crown under “gold”. Painting decided not to restore, as its layer is very thin, fragmentary and fairly filled with olive oil - only washing. Everything is collected partly on native old and partly on new brass carnations.

Perhaps now the icon can be returned to the "red corner" and it will again please its owners.