Romanian Orthodox icons

{{Short description|Icons in Romanian Orthodoxy}}

{{Expand Romanian|date=November 2024}}

In the Romanian Orthodox Church, icons serve much the same purpose as they do in the rest of the worldwide Orthodox Church. The art of painting them has seen a revival after the end of the communist period, and today there are many active icon painters in Romania.

In Romania, icons painted as reversed images on glass and set in frames were common in the 19th century and are still made. "In the Transylvanian countryside, the expensive icons on panels imported from Moldavia, Wallachia, and Mt. Athos were gradually replaced by small, locally produced icons on glass, which were much less expensive and thus accessible to the Transylvanian peasants..."{{cite book|title=Romanian Icons on Glass|last1=Dancu|first1=Juliana|first2=Dumitru |last2=Dancu| publisher=Wayne State University Press|year=1982}}

Although exceptions exist, "Roman Orthodox icons rarely show Jesus nailed to the cross as they do in Catholic Churches."{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qfWgAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Romanian+Orthodox+icons%22+-wikipedia |page=108|title= We Wait for You: Unheard Voices from Post-Communist Romania|first=Annabelle |last=Townson |year=2005|publisher=Hamilton Books|isbn=9780761832423}}

Religious icons and crucifixes are allowed in Romanian schools, by order of the Romania high court, in contrast to the United States.{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dJAREAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Romanian+Orthodox+icons%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA510|chapter=27|page=510|title= The Oxford Handbook of Freedom of Speech, 2021|year=2021|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn= 9780198827580|first=Gautam|last=Bhatia}}{{cite book|chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=0hdUDgAAQBAJ&dq=%22Romanian+Orthodox+icons%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA228|chapter=13|pages=228–233|title= Presence of the Cross in Public Spaces: Experiences of Selected European Countries, 2017|first=Laurentiu D. |last=Tanase|year=2017|isbn= 9781443878661|publisher=Cambridge Scholars }}

Romanian icons commonly use a halo to indicate saints, and was used for the ghost in Shakespeare’s Hamlet as well, to indicate the supernatural character of the dead king.{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=q0I-yP65BWoC&dq=%22Romanian+Orthodox+icons%22+-wikipedia&pg=PT222|title= Shakespeare and Conflict: A European Perspective|year=2013|editor=C. Dente|isbn=9781137311344|publisher= Palgrave Macmillan}}