In the Middle Ages, the so-called "ad-painting icons" were widespread in Russia. They got their name because they had 2 layers. On the first, external, plots and images traditional for icons were depicted: Jesus Christ, saints, etc. On the second layer, hidden under the first, pictures of hell, devils, and the devil were painted.
Usually, the artist who painted icons (bogomaz) first applied soil to the base and painted pictures of hell on it. Then he waited for the paint to dry properly and applied the primer again. Only after this did the bogomaz depict a canonical Christian plot. Sometimes he could just paint horns on some saint and hide them under a layer of paint, making them invisible to outside observers.
History and meaning
Hell-painting icons are considered legendary. Numerous legends circulate about them, mentions are often found in various historical documents, but real examples of such icons have not survived to this day. For the first time, the term "ad-painting icons" is found in the monument of the 16th century, the life of St. Basil the Blessed.
It describes how Basil the Blessed approached the city gates, on which was exhibited a miraculous icon with the image of the Mother of God. Contrary to the expectations of the crowd of pilgrims who surrounded the wonderful image, he did not begin to offer him prayers, but threw a stone at the icon. The saint explained his act by the fact that under the visible layer of paint there is an image of a devil. He then proved his words by displaying a hidden image.
Hell-painting icons were considered especially dangerous for the believer, since both images were inextricably linked with each other. A Christian, offering a prayer to the saint or Jesus depicted on the Hellish icon, simultaneously prayed to the devil. For ordinary people, it was a real test of faith, but at the same time it was a kind of attractive game in the recognition of "devilish delights." Hell-painting icons were a special kind of black magic.
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Sources of distribution
The term "ad-painting icons" was widespread among the Old Believers, who did not accept the church reform and did not want to obey the new Greek models of worship adopted in the 17th century. It was the Old Believers who could paint and distribute Hellish icons in order to undermine the faith of Christians who had accepted the reform.
Another version of the emergence of this phenomenon is the confrontation of the heresy of the Jewish officials of the official church. The Jews did not accept the worship of icons. In their opinion, the latter were real idols, and worshiping them was idolatry. This was contrary to the commandment "Do not make yourself an idol." To eradicate faith in holy icons, heretics spread the hidden Hellish images.
According to the third version, the emergence of such icons was explained by a simple fraud of peddlers (ofen). One icon dealer sold a seemingly ordinary icon to a buyer and left. Then another peddler approached the deceived and "opened his eyes", revealing a hidden layer with devilish drawings. Such a case was described by Nikolai Leskov in the story "The Sealed Angel". In 1873, the writer also published a small study of the phenomenon of Hellish icons.
The question of existence
In the 19th century, there were several publications about Hellish icons. However, the authors call “hell-painting” simply bad, ineptly drawn images of saints. At the beginning of the 20th century, researchers more and more often declare that ado-painting icons did not actually exist at all. The stories about them were a kind of "horror stories" for the superstitious and naive people. The Russian Slavist Nikita Tolstoy wrote about the same. Modern researchers are of the same opinion.