Papastratos Dory. Paper icons: Greek Orthodox religious engravings, 1665-1899: Volume II

Papastratos Publications, 1990. — 307 p.Paper icons date mainly from the 18th and 19th centuries. Under the Ottoman Turkish rule, Eastern Orthodox monasteries were not financially supported by the Muslim government, and paper icons were a means to raise funds for the monasteries. Today, fewer than three thousand of the original known icons remain.
The first paper icons were created as woodcuts but, as technology developed, metal engravings. The plates were prepared at monasteries such as Mount Sinai or Mount Athos, and then printed by Greeks working in Vienna, Warsaw, Moscow, and Rome. There were three main types: copies of famous icons held by the monasteries, scenes of miracles, and topographical depictions of the monasteries themselves. Images were hung on the walls of middle and lower-class homes in place of more expensive, painted wooden panels. These images, it was hoped, would inspire people to donate to the monasteries or make pilgrimages to visit them.