The prophet Habakkuk lived in the 7th century BC, he is mentioned in the Old Testament. Little is said about him, it is assumed that Habakkuk was a temple preacher. He predicted the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple during the assault of Emperor Titus’ Roman troops and the capture of the Jews in Babylonia under King Nebuchadnezzar II. The Old Testament also contains his text – The Book of Habakkuk. It consists of three parts and is written in the form of a dialogue between God and Habakkuk himself.

On icons the prophet was usually depicted with a scroll — there were written phrases from his Book. For this icon the painters used a special font – Cyrillic calligraphy. Words in such a font merged into a single line, and if there were free spaces left, they were filled with monograms and symbols.

In icon painting, the depiction of faces and exposed parts of the body was called ‘lichnoye pismo’. In lichnoye pismo they used ochre — this paint was obtained from a mixture of rust and clay. In different icon painting schools – of Novgorod, Vologda, Moscow and others – shades of ochre differed from each other due to the peculiarities of local pigments.

Kargopol didn’t form a well-defined school, but had its specific features. For example, icons were painted not only by urban masters, but also by peasants of natural gifts. Because of this, images acquired a simplified look, and artists chose uncomplicated subjects. There were many churches in Russian North, so commissions for icons came often. In Kargopol, whole families would become icon painters, dynasties were formed, for example, the Bogdanovs-Karbatovs, who in the 18th century painted for the whole uyezd.