In the pages of this book we are conducted on a tour of some of the finest icons of the eastern Christian world. Our guide is Alfredo Tradigo, the art critic and artistic director of the Italian journal, Famiglia Christiana. He has assembled more than 350 icons which he has arranged in groups according to the subject matter. So he begins with collections of icons, on iconostases and also on the large calendar icons. He then progresses through icons depicting themes from the Old and New Testaments, then the Mother of God, which here precede those of Christ the Saviour, and then come the Apostles, the Fathers of the Church and various saints. On each page of the book there is a reproduction of an icon, which is placed alongside written comment. The commentary includes a short introduction to each section – always less than one page. Then each icon has a caption giving the title and basic information about the icon and also marginal comments showing the main features of it with discreet arrows to indicate the detail to which the comment refers. In addition there are also small notes in the margins of some of the pages giving biblical references, dates of relevant feasts in the Church's calendar and some sources for the subject matter.

The author's aim in this book is to explain the imagery of the icon and to help the viewer to understand it, by describing how the image evolved, when that particular icon-type was first painted, the episode shown on the icon and how the colour and composition communicates the message. It provides an introduction for those who have come to enjoy looking at icons and want to understand them more, and also gives much information that will be fresh to those with greater familiarity.

A successful feature is the bringing together of different icons of the same subject. There is, for example, an excellent section showing how icon painters have depicted the Trinity and especially how they have approached one of the problems of the icon, how to portray what is beyond understanding, God the Father. Tradigo shows us, of course, Andrei Rublev's icon of the angelic visitors to Abraham, with short but clear notes on the different interpretations of the identity of the three figures. He then presents several examples of the Father shown as an enthroned figure, with the Son and the Spirit. This approach was rejected by the Council of the Hundred Chapters in Moscow in 1551 but retained its popularity. There is a full section describing and showing a total of twenty-eight types of icon of the Mother of God. There are the familiar hodegetria, orans and eleousa icons but also other less familiar types such as the Enclosed Garden, Conversing Virgin and Unfading Rose. The origins of these are explained and the content shown. Sections such as these give a thorough and clear survey of the large variety of icons of a particular type, with explanations of the relationships and differences between them.

Most of the icons chosen are from Russia – around 280 of the 350 reproduced. There are good reasons for this. There is a huge and rich tradition of iconography in Russia, which was able to develop freely under a government at least nominally Orthodox in contrast to the countries under Ottoman domination after the Fall of Constantinople in 1453. The Russian tradition explored the doctrinal themes of iconography and the book shows this dimension clearly. As well as Russian icons, the author includes some of the finest icons from St Catherine's monastery on Mount Sinai. But other regions and styles are not well represented. There are only two icons from Mount Athos, two from Egypt and none from Ethiopia. There are also no examples of the work of contemporary icon painters of the present age, often seen as a time of revival of iconography. The Russian emphasis is also shown in the subject matter. There is a section devoted to Russian saints, such as Procopius of Ustiug or Basil the Blessed, but not to saints of other regions. So the Russian emphasis results not only in large groups of icons being left unrepresented, but also in gaps in the content. For example the section of icons on God the Father, referred to above, would have benefited greatly from the inclusion of the icon type of the Trinity shown as three identical enthroned white-haired figures, which is popular in Ethiopia but seldom found elsewhere. As a result this collection can hardly claim to show the full richness and variety of the iconographic tradition.

A lot of information is conveyed in a short and compact style, and there is much fascinating detail about the background to the icons. This is not however a study of iconography and the reader wanting a systematic study of the history or theology of icons will be disappointed. There are no chapters devoted to the origin of icons or the iconoclastic controversy, for example. Nor is there help given to those wanting to understand the characteristics of the different schools of icon painting. This is more unfortunate since the captions to the icon reproductions often refer to these schools, without explanation. A little more introductory material would have been helpful and could have been included without the text becoming over intrusive.

Once the reader has recognised that this is not a systematic study of iconography but the personal choice of an enthusiast then she will enjoy and learn from the fine collection. The book is beautifully produced on good quality glossy paper with fine reproductions. This is a book of icons not a book about icons. The illustrations are beautiful and moving to look at. They are placed carefully within the tradition of the Church. The volume is a joy to handle and to look at. It gives fresh insights and, what the author and more significantly the icon painters themselves would have wanted, it also moves the reader to deeper appreciation of the glory of God revealed in these great works.