Why Is the Altar Hidden Behind a Wall of Paintings? A Boundary That Is Also a Door

An iconostasis is a screen of icons standing between the nave, where the congregation is, and the sanctuary containing the altar. It carries doors, with a central pair opened at defined points in the liturgy and single doors at each side used by the clergy. The images on it are not arranged decoratively but according to a scheme, with particular subjects in particular positions relative to the doors and in tiers above. Its height varies enormously between traditions and periods, from a low barrier through which everything is visible to a full wall reaching the ceiling, and that variation is itself the subject of theological argument about whether the sanctuary should be concealed or shown.

The scheme is consistent enough to be described:

• •Christ to the right of the central doors and the Mother of God to the left, in every arrangement
• •The church's patron saint beside Christ, which identifies the building
• •The doors themselves carrying the Annunciation and the four evangelists
• •A tier above showing the great feasts of the church year
• •A further tier showing apostles or saints flanking Christ enthroned
• •Prophets and patriarchs in the highest tiers where the screen is tall

The screen grew from something much smaller over a long period. Early churches used a low barrier marking the sanctuary, comparable to arrangements in Roman public buildings, and images were added to it gradually. The full high screen developed in the Russian tradition from around the fourteenth century, reaching its greatest height and elaboration afterwards, while Greek practice generally retained lower forms. The development is connected to changes in how the liturgy was performed and understood, and to the theology of images established after prolonged conflict about whether images could be venerated at all, which was resolved in favour of images in the ninth century and is commemorated liturgically. Western churches developed their own screens along parallel lines and mostly removed them later.

The images on the screen are produced under conventions that distinguish them sharply from ordinary painting. Icons are described as written rather than painted in the tradition, which reflects their being understood as carrying doctrine rather than expressing an artist's view. Compositions follow established models, so a given subject is depicted in a recognisable arrangement rather than invented, and departure from it is not regarded as originality. Perspective is deliberately inverted in many icons, with lines diverging away from the viewer rather than converging, which places the viewer inside the image rather than outside it. Gold grounds indicate uncreated light rather than a setting. Painters traditionally prepared with fasting and prayer, and the work was frequently unsigned, since attributing it to an individual missed the point.

The theological account explains why a barrier is not experienced as exclusion. The screen is described as a boundary between what is visible and what is not, with the images functioning as windows rather than as a wall, so the saints depicted are understood as present and as participating rather than as pictures of absent people. The doors opening at particular moments is therefore an event rather than a convenience. Critics within the tradition have argued for lower screens on the grounds that concealing the altar separates clergy from congregation in a way the early church did not, and that argument has run for over a century with practical consequences in newly built churches, which frequently use lower forms deliberately.

The screen stands between congregation and altar carrying icons in fixed positions, with Christ and the Mother of God flanking the central doors in every arrangement. It grew from a low barrier into a full wall in the Russian tradition from the fourteenth century while Greek practice kept lower forms. The images are understood as windows rather than a wall, which is why the barrier is not experienced as exclusion.