<P> Icons are often illuminated with a candle or jar of oil with a wick . (Beeswax for candles and olive oil for oil lamps are preferred because they burn very cleanly, although other materials are sometimes used .) The illumination of religious images with lamps or candles is an ancient practice pre-dating Christianity . </P> <P> Of the icon painting tradition that developed in Byzantium, with Constantinople as the chief city, we have only a few icons from the 11th century and none preceding them, in part because of the Iconoclastic reforms during which many were destroyed or lost, and also because of plundering by the Republic of Venice in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade, and finally the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 . </P> <P> It was only in the Comnenian period (1081--1185) that the cult of the icon became widespread in the Byzantine world, partly on account of the dearth of richer materials (such as mosaics, ivory, and vitreous enamels), but also because an iconostasis a special screen for icons was introduced then in ecclesiastical practice . The style of the time was severe, hieratic and distant . </P> <P> In the late Comnenian period this severity softened, and emotion, formerly avoided, entered icon painting . Major monuments for this change include the murals at Daphni Monastery (ca . 1100) and the Church of St. Panteleimon near Skopje (1164). The Theotokos of Vladimir (ca . 1115, illustration, right) is probably the most representative example of the new trend towards spirituality and emotion . </P>

Icon means image (greek) religious painting on wood as used in the orthodox church