Traditions in Transition: Russian Icons in the Age of the Romanovs September 8, 2006

Seven hundred years of virtual isolation came to a screeching halt when Peter the Great forced the construction of the new capital for Russia on a Baltic-shore swamp. Through this symbolic action, he opened "the window on the West." The resulting influx of ideas, notions, styles, fashions and ideologies altered the very fabric of Russian society and caused a pronounced influence on its most emblematic artistic expression - the religious icon. 'Tradition in Transition: Russian Icons in the Age of the Romanovs' is a visual and didactic exploration of iconography in flux. Icons from this period--vestiges of the Romanov dynasty-were traditionally viewed as inferior to those produced during the medieval period, or "Golden Age." Now, curator Wendy Salmond has conceived an exhibition of 43 rare icons and oklads (decorative icon covers) that challenges this view.