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The Icons

The icon talks about the God and about how the people become Saints. The Veronica's Veil and the Holy Face of the Jesus, the not painted one by the human hand, it is said that they were the first icons but that the first painted belonged the the Evangelist Luca and represented the Virgin with Child. In this respect, the most known painting was the one of Virgin Hodighitria, in different variants.

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Over more than 17 centuries, in 1681, another Luca, priest in Iclod, painted an icon of the Virgin Hodighitria, the miracle making icon, centre of the annual pilgrimages at the Nicula Monastery, beginning of a history that is written nowadays, too: icon on glass. The Virgin with Child, Jesus the Emperor or Jesus with the vine, Jesus and John as children, the Holy Trinity, the Saints Michael and Gavriil, the Saints Apostles Peter and Pavel, the Saint Ilie, John the Baptist, Three Hierarchies, Nicholas, Haralambie, George, Dimitrie and Theodor, Saints Anna and Paraschiva, the Nativity, the Baptism and Resurrection, and many other icons - are themes of the Transylvanian folk iconography. Beginning with the end of the 18th century, the School of Nicula, the folk icon painted on glass was developed in the centres as Scheii Brasovului, Iernuteni, Marginimea Sibiului, Laz and Lancram, Maierii Albei Iulia, Tara Oltului and Fagaras, Margau. These centres meant actually many schools, anonymous peasant iconographers, iconographers' followers or famous painters.

Either it was kept in the house, generally on the eastern wall, or in the church, the icon was an object of worship for the saint represented. The icon followed the thread of the man's life. He was born with it in the house, he received it as a wedding gift, he worshiped piously to it, and he took the icon with him when he died. The icon was also present during the Resurrection processions or other holidays. The peasant loved the icon, and wanted to have the saints as closed as possible to his soul. In this respect, the study made in the inter-war period by the Romanian Social Institute in the Fagaras village Dragus shows that in 285 houses there were 1590 icons, 689 of them on glass, the others being printed and only a few being on wood.

For painting the icon on wood, first they chose a good wood, especially lime tree. On this support the linen was stuck with glue and then they put many coats of primer prepared in the painter's workshop. They worked with natural colours made basically of pigments and egg emulsion and they used gold leaf. The glazes were made of natural resins or bee wax. Important in this process was also the pray of the iconographer-painter.

The folk icon on glass was made following an izvod (outlined pattern, put under the glass). First they made an outline, then they put the colours and at the end the gold which give such a nobility. Then they put it within a wooden frame, protected with wood on the back.

The true parents of the museography, the collectors gathered these icons and kept them carefully, as patrimony items and of great value: spiritual, artistic, documentary. Even in a museum, even in an exhibition, the icon still holds its sacredness.

The icons are exhibited periodically in the rooms for temporary exhibitions.