Canon

Canon is an artistic movement in which masters strictly adhere to certain rules, templates, and models recognized as exemplary. This approach is especially characteristic of the art of Ancient Greece, Egypt, and, later, Christian icon painting. The goal is not the creative self-expression of the artist, but the repetition of already formed ideals of beauty, proportions, and composition.

In the canon, everything is important: poses of figures, facial expressions, color palette. It is known that masters even measured the proportions of statues with rulers! Even the slightest deviation was considered an error.

Interestingly, once a medieval icon painter was punished for a "too human" smile on the image of a saint.

The canon was a guarantee of recognizability: the viewer, looking at a work, always understood whom it depicts and what it speaks about. This strict approach was the basis for further stylistic explorations in the Renaissance era.