Hell icons (, ''adopisnaya ikona'', lit. "Hell-written icon" or "Hell-painted icon") are alleged

icons An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, and Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, saints, and angels. Although especially ...

with images of

Devil A devil is the mythical personification of evil as it is conceived in various cultures and religious traditions. It is seen as the objectification of a hostile and destructive force. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the different conce ...

hidden under the

primer Primer may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Primer'' (film), a 2004 feature film written and directed by Shane Carruth * ''Primer'' (video), a documentary about the funk band Living Colour Literature * Primer (textbook), a te ...

, the

riza : A riza ( Russian: риза, "vestment," "robe"; Ukrainian: шати, ''shaty'', "vestments") or oklad (оклад, "cover"), sometimes called a "revetment" in English, is a thin metal cover protecting an icon. It is usually made of gilt or s ...

or the painted layer. Also, the image of saints could include horns hidden under the paint. The term "Hell-written" first occurs in ''

Prologue A prologue or prolog (from Ancient Greek πρόλογος ''prólogos'', from πρό ''pró'', "before" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is an opening to a story that establishes the context and gives background details, often some earlier st ...

'' (Eastern Orthodox

Synaxarium Synaxarion or Synexarion (plurals Synaxaria, Synexaria; , from συνάγειν, ''synagein'', "to bring together"; cf. etymology of '' synaxis'' and ''synagogue''; Latin: ''Synaxarium'', ''Synexarium''; ; Ge'ez: ሲናክሳሪየም(ስንክ� ...

) regarding Sabellianist church banners. ''Full Church Slavonic dictionary'' gives the following commentary: "painted in hell". The term "Hell icons" is mostly used amongst

Old Believers Old Believers or Old Ritualists ( Russian: староверы, ''starovery'' or старообрядцы, ''staroobryadtsy'') is the common term for several religious groups, which maintain the old liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian ...

. The painting of hell icons, known as ''adopis'' or "hellography" (as opposed to

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

), was also a type of

black magic Black magic (Middle English: ''nigromancy''), sometimes dark magic, traditionally refers to the use of Magic (paranormal), magic or supernatural powers for evil and selfish purposes. The links and interaction between black magic and religi ...

medieval Russia Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of Russ ...

. Hell icons were first mentioned in the ''Life of St. Basil'' (the 16th century): Basil threw a rock at the icon of

Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

before the eyes of the astonished crowd of

pilgrim The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star. Computer scientists and mathematicians often vocalize it as ...

s. Then he allegedly showed that the image of the devil was hidden under the paint. Messages about hell icons appeared in newspaper articles and the literature of the 19th century, but such articles reported only the later icons of "cheap and clumsily painting."

Nikolai Leskov Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov (; – ) was a Russian novelist, short-story writer, playwright, and journalist, who also wrote under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky. Praised for his unique writing style and innovative experiments in form, and held ...

, who was interested in Christian iconography, included a reference to hell icons in his story ''

The Sealed Angel ''The Sealed Angel'' () is a story by Nikolai Leskov, written in 1872 and first published in the No.1, January 1873 issue of '' The Russian Messenger''. The story concerns a group of Old Believers whose revered icon of an angel is confiscated by ...

'' (1872) and in short article "On hell icons" (), published in 1873. In the 20th century Russian linguist Nikita Tolstoy doubted their existence. This point of view is shared by modern art critics due to lack of material evidence (all such icons, if ever existed, have been lost).

References

Christian mysticism Fictional objects Eastern Orthodox icons {{fictional-stub