Sigh. One of my all time most beautiful favorite things I've ever seen are (drum roll please) the Rizas at the Faberge Museum in St. Petersburg. A riza is a metal cover protecting an icon. They are usually made of gilt or silvered metal with precious stones and pearls. The purpose of a riza is to honour and venerate an icon. It also protects the painting under it because candles and oil lamps were often burned in front of them.
The riza is designed specifically for the icon it is to cover. It leaves open spaces where the face, hands, and feet of the icon's subject can be seen.
The rizas usually have elaborate robes, haloes and crowns. Older ones sometimes just cover the halo (venets) or have a stylized neck ring (tsatas). A few of the late Byzantine ones were designed with a riza from the beginning, so only the areas not covered by the riza needed to be painted.
We saw big ones and tiny ones, and one the size of a grandfather clock that was fully decorated with pearls. If I recall, most of them were the size of a large book.
There's just something about them. So precious to whoever owned it at the time. So beautiful!
