CLINTON - Being a collector can become an exercise in excess, or be downright uplifting. Gordon Lankton, chairman of the board of Nypro, an international plastics company, definitely falls in the latter category.
In late 2006, his fascination with the quintessential art of the Russian Orthodox Church went public when the Museum of Russian Icons opened in this small Central Massachusetts town. In a model of adaptive reuse, the red-brick former town library and Post Office buildings became modern galleries linked on three levels by gracefully curving steel staircases.
Lankton, who is the museum's director, purchased his first icon in 1989 at a flea market on a business trip to Russia. Although he had no previous interest in art, the religious images painted on wood with egg tempera struck a chord. Collectors of any stripe can guess the rest: Lankton's trove has grown to about 320 icons that date from the 15th to 21st centuries.
A videotaped 2006 interview of Lankton conducted by local access TV host Augusta Alban runs on a continuous loop in one corner of the street-level gallery. In it, Lankton says the icons hung in his home until his wife decided it was "a little much." But even in a public setting, the collection remains personal and intimate. Visitors can use a free audio guide narrated by Lankton, and it's easy to imagine him honing his stories during years of impromptu after-dinner tours.
The museum displays about 120 icons. With dark walls, high-efficiency LED lighting, and background liturgical music, the soothing space encourages visitors to linger. Wheeled leather stools can be pulled up so a viewer can contemplate a given icon in comfort using one of the handy magnifying glasses to examine the levels of detail and subtle symbolism that so captivated Lankton.
Scholars generally date the formative years for the distinctive Russian style of icon painting between 1350 and 1650, a period well represented in the museum. The earliest piece on display is a circa 1450 image of St. John the Baptist. One of the most recurring images is that of St. George, the patron saint of Moscow. A circa 1500 example depicts him on a white horse slaying a writhing black dragon with red wings, a symbol of the triumph of Christianity.
Like most good art, the icons reveal a little slice of life. The museum groups a collection of Pokrov icons, which depict Jesus' mother, Mary, in her role of sheltering mankind with her veil. These images often hung in Russian homes as a talisman against fire, earthquakes, plagues, and other threats. Other icons tell of daily activities. A circa 1600 icon captures the way of life at the Solovetsky Monastery, isolated on an island in the White Sea, near the Arctic Circle. In the shadow of the tall stone church, the monks fish, farm, and conduct their business in the salt trade as Christ and the saints look down from the heavens.
Artists were forbidden to paint icons during the communist years, but the art form has rebounded since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. One piece in the collection brings the practice full circle. The elaborate icon comprises scenes from the life of the 14th-century monk Andre Rublev, considered the father of Russian iconography. Rendered in traditional colors and flat perspective, Rublev's life (circa 1360-1430) is pictured including his birth, education, entry into the monastery, artwork, death, and canonization.
It was painted in Moscow in 2003. For collectors, temptations never cease.
Patricia Harris and David Lyon, Cambridge-based writers, can be reached at harris.lyon@verizon.net.
