Carved mother-of-pearl icons in the collection of the Church Historical and Archaeological Museum of the Kostroma Diocese

The article is devoted to icons of Palestinian origin from the collection of the Church Historical and Archaeological Museum of the Kostroma Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church. In the second half of the XIX - early XX century, Russian Orthodox pilgrims visited Palestine en masse, revered as a place of biblical events. As memorable relics, which were taken home by our compatriots at the end of the pilgrimage, products made of mother-of-pearl for religious purposes, which were made by Palestinian craftsmen from Jerusalem and Bethlehem, were in great demand. Icons made on a mother-of-pearl basis in the technique of engraving and relief carving occupied a special place among these products. 24 such icons are kept in the Kostroma Diocesan Museum. The article describes the most remarkable specimens from the museum collection, their plots and composition features. Based on the actual material, the author traces the influence of the Catholic spiritual tradition and Western European art in general on the formation of the most typical visual interpretations of the events of sacred history for Palestinian icons made of mother-of-pearl. It is assumed that in choosing the iconography of the subjects and their compositional solution, the regional masters focused mainly on Western European engravings and lithographs. According to the author, the composition of the elements of the floral ornament, which is a traditional part of the decor for this type of product, is also due not to the aesthetic preferences of Palestinian artisans, but to their desire to use stable symbols and images imprinted in the oldest monuments of church hymnography, Christian tradition and legends of Western Europe.