The icon painting school was created with the blessing of the Archbishop of The Hague and the Netherlands Elisey in 2025.
You can enroll and start classes at the school at the beginning of the semester, namely: in September or February. The icon painter's training lasts 2 years (basic) + 1 year (full advanced education as per student's wish). Classes are usually held weekly on Fridays from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Classes include lectures on theoretical subjects and acquisition of practical skills in the icon painter's specialty.
Tuition fees: 480 euros per semester (4 months).
Training program
General subjects
• On Orthodox Christianity
• Church sacraments and worship
• Science of Holiness
• Old and New Testament in iconography
• History of Christian art
• Creation of sacred spaces
Special items
• Drawing / icon drawing
• Composition/iconography
• Color science / color in the icon
• Materials
• Icon painting
• Restoration
Diploma work - icon
Teachers
Irina Alianova
Professional icon painter and restorer of icons, teacher of icon painting. Education: Art School named after I. E. Repin, Academy of Design and Arts, Icon Painting School at the Kharkov Theological Seminary.
Priest Dmitry Dovger
Rector of the Parish of St. Sergius of Radonezh in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Education: St. Sergius Theological Institute, Paris, France.
Invited teachers in theoretical and specialized subjects.
Admission
Classes start on September 15, 2025 (1st semester) and February 2, 2026 (2nd semester).
An applicant must submit a written application for admission to the school by e-mail at least 2 weeks before the start of the semester to the school principal - Irina Alyanova, tel. +31 6 34230693, email info@obraz-iconen.nl
Admission to the school is based on the results of an exam and interview.
Exam
During the exam, the applicant must draw (in color) a sample or fragment of an icon.
Material: watercolor, gouache or tempera (optional); paper: 20 x 30 cm.
Requirements for the work: correct placement of the image on a sheet of paper, rendering of the character of the image, observance of color and light-tone relationships. Completion time – 4 hours.
Interview
The topic of the interview is understanding the basics of Christianity and Christian life.
What kind of icon painter should one be?
Canonical rules of the Orthodox Church. The Council of Stoglav (Stoglav) of 1551, Rule 43. Council response on icon painters and on honorable icons.
The icon painter must be humble, meek, reverent, not idle, not a mocker, not quarrelsome, not envious, not a drunkard, not a robber, not a murderer. He must above all preserve the purity of soul and body with all strictness. Those who are not able to fully observe this are supposed to marry in a lawful marriage and often come to spiritual fathers for confession and advice, and according to their word and instruction live in fasting, prayer and abstinence, with humility, without obstinacy and disorder.
The image of our Lord Jesus Christ and His Most Pure Mother of God, and the holy prophets and apostles, and the holy martyrs and holy martyrs, and the holy women and saints and holy fathers must be painted with all diligence in the image and likeness of the essence, looking at the images of ancient painters and from the best examples.
And if any of those master painters or their students begin to live incorrectly in drunkenness, uncleanliness and all sorts of disorder, then the bishops must forbid such people, excommunicate them completely from icon work and order them not to touch it, as it is written: cursed be he who dares to do God's work with negligence.