Icons are the beautiful materialistic representations of two different wolds human and divine. But primary their purpose was not material but spiritual. They are unique things which can create special symbolic meaning in people's minds. It represents something spiritual and lofty. Looking at the icons everybody feels something special. We all (people, plants, animals) are creatures of the God and icons help us to understand the main principles of our existence. Icons depict the ideals of the faith. Icon painting is not only a kind of art it also has a special symbolic meaning. It is an essential part of the Orthodox Church and it is a very important part of our religion. The evolution and the whole tradition of the Church will be incomplete without a knowledge and understanding of icon paintings. Interpretation of the icons should be based on both theological and technical aspects. The Church is interested in the beauty of this spiritual world. In Christian Orthodox art, the beautiful is not determined by the natural form of the objects, but by its sublime content, that is, by its power to serve the ideals of the faith. We all (people, plants, animals) are creatures of God and each of us is good not because of our form or color, but because of the service we render. This basic idea of Orthodox icon painting is the main difficulty for our understanding and appreciation of icons. When we look at icons, it is unusual for us to see their apparent simplicity, their flatness, unreal colors, lack of perspective, and strange proportions. But at the same time icon painting doesn't cause negative attitude to them. More than that icons create special symbolic meaning in our minds and help to feel something special.
