Icon

The Eastern Orthodox church's liturgical art is focussed on the icon and on the iconostasis or icon screen before the altar. Icons were made already in the sixth century. The early techniques were encaustic or mosaic, and among later techniques, tempera was preeminent. The wooden icon panel is the most familiar type, but icons can also be murals. The metal, jeweled covering over icon panels is a notable feature of the art, although only a small percentage have them. Icons may represent Jesus, Mary, the archangels and angels, saints, scenes from the New Testament, Christ Pantocrator and the Holy Trinity. They are objects of veneration in the Eastern church and there is a mystical theology concerning their nature.