Dear Friends,
As Diak says, this style is the Western expressionistic art of the Tsars and of the Kyivan Baroque period.
The icon of the Pokrova is almost an identical copy of the "Kozak Pokrova" that was venerated in the Kozak "Sitch" near Kyiv and is now in the museum of Odessa.
Another similar type is the Pokrova where even Tsar Peter I himself is depicted standing among the Kozaks looking up at the Mother of God!
Yet another depicts the Polish King with Met. Dionysius Balaban - very Western in fact.
The Kozak Baroque is its own style, Westernized and all.
It is part of our Ukrainian/Ruthenian Church heritage today and kudos to those who took the trouble to reproduce that style that reminds us of the Kozak Crusaders of yesteryear, many of whom died fighting to liberate Christians enslaved by the Turks.
There are also a number of Kozak Saints such as St Pachomios of Patmos, Saints John and Paul of Rus', St Dmitry of Rostov and St Joasaph Horlenko and others.
This style would have been familiar to all of them.
So would the Rosary, St Bonaventure's Psalter of our Lady and the Little Office of the Virgin Mary as well as the 15 Prayers of St Birgitte of Sweden - Slavonic versions of which were published at Venice.
St Dmitry of Rostov also prayed the Rosary of the Sorrows of the Mother of God from France - which is today included in the Jordanville Prayerbook under the title of the "Tale of the Five Prayers."
He also prayed a Hail Mary at the beginning of each hour, 24 hours a day.
And yet, despite their Latinizations, they are Saints of the Orthodox Church.
Then there is St Tikhon of Zadonsk with his cell Stations of the Cross . . .
But I don't want to scandalize you more than I absolutely must . . .
Alex
