Preface
The British Museum’s collection of icons, at
present housed in the Department of Prehistory and Europe, numbers
just over 100 items. This constitutes the largest public collection
of icons in the United Kingdom. The collection falls into three
discrete areas: Byzantine icons, dating from between the mid-13th
to the late 14th century, Greek (mainly Cretan) icons, ranging
in date from the 14th through to the 18th century, and finally,
Russian icons. This catalogue is devoted to the 72 icons falling
into the latter category. Arranged in chronological order, the
catalogue covers a period from the 15th through to the early 20th
century. The introductory essays, along with the catalogue entries
themselves were researched and written in their entirety by Dr
Yury Bobrov, of the Academy of Arts in St Petersburg.
A further online catalogue, by Professors Robin Cormack and Maria
Vassilaki, devoted to the remaining Byzantine and Greek icons, is
scheduled for publication in 2009.
Although the Museum acquired its first icon as
long ago as 1852, it was not until the 1980s that a policy of
regular acquisition was initiated by the Trustees. This led to the
purchase of four outstanding Byzantine icons between 1983 and 1988,
as well as an early fifteenth-century Russian icon of great
aesthetic and art historical importance, the so-called ‘Black
George’. Although the Museum has not purchased an icon since 1988,
it has greatly benefited over the last 20 years from a number of
important gifts and bequests. In 1994 a bequest of seven icons by
Guy Holford Dixon JP was the prelude to the transfer of the
National Gallery’s five Cretan and Russian icons. Four years later
Sir Frank Roberts GCMG GCVO, formerly Her Majesty’s Ambassador to
Moscow, bequeathed 45 painted and 19 metal Eastern Orthodox icons
dating from between 1600 and 1900. Finally, Miss E.W. Dyne Steel
MBE either gave or bequeathed 17 icons between 1998 and 2002. A
more detailed history of the Museum’s icon collection will appear
in the volume devoted to the Byzantine and Greek icons.
Although the most important icons in the
Museum’s collection are permanently on display, a large number of
the secondary items are lodged in the reserve collection. The
principal benefit, it is hoped, of this online catalogue will be to
publicise better, and make more accessible to a wider audience, the
Museum’s collection in its entirety. This is an acknowledgement of
the great interest in icons today. The reserve collection has
recently been re-housed making access for both scholars and members
of the public much easier. Appointments to see the reserve
collection are always welcomed and can be made through the
Department of Prehistory and Europe at the British Museum.
Chris Entwistle
July 2008
Abbreviations
P&E = Department of Prehistory and Europe,
the British Museum
Reg. no. = registration number
cm = centimetres
IC ΧC = ’Ιησους Χριστòς
(Jesus Christ)
ΜΡ ΘΥ = Μήτηρ θεού (Mother of God). The
theta is often rendered on Russian icons as an O.