Icons Art and Devotion Author:T. Talbot Rice Icons were among the first religious objects objects brought into Russia from Byzantium at a time when Christian art was already highly developed . Although the art of the icon (the sacred picture of the Greek Orthodox church) could be said to have reached perfection in the Byzantine world, the Russians produced some of the finest examples. Icon... more »s were first produced for use in churches and processions. As their size became smaller, so demand for them as religious household objects grew . They have remained an important feature in Russia's orthodox religious cultures to this day. The 65 plates in this book show work as beautiful as that of the greatest Italian primitives.« less