Nearly all the icons in the collection of the Link of Times Foundation are articles of personal devotion. These icons accompanied Russians over the course of their entire lives: they were given as gifts at birth, on birthdays or weddings and kept as family heirlooms. Smaller icons were worn by people on the chest under their clothes, hung from the headboard of their beds and more often placed in the red corner of a home or on a desk. On trips, Russians would take folding altars, triptych icons on hinges that could be closed to protect the image. The museum’s collection holds several such objects of “domestic devotion,” among them some linked to the imperial family.
The icon St. Alexander Nevsky, painted by the artist I. Zaitsev in 1831, was commissioned as a birthday gift for its owner, also named Alexander. The prince is depicted here in tsarist regalia, with golden armor, a crimson robe lined with ermine fur and a crown.