The collection of the Russian wooden church sculpture is not large – the Moscow Kremlin Museums possess only about 80 exhibits. But the majority of the creations are eminent examples of plastic art of Medieval Russia. This collection is not a historically formed one – it is the result of the purposeful collecting activity of the museum during a period from 1918 till 1931. The chronological span of the collection is from the end of the 14th century to the beginning of the 20th century. It includes various kinds of plastic arts – from small bas-relief icons, crosses and folding icons, to monumental high reliefs and examples of round sculpture. Numerous works of the Russian Medieval small plastic arts form a separate museum collection.
Carved icons and sculptured images of saints, although much rarer than pictorial icons, were venerated throughout Russia, especially by common people. Church authorities were more cautious about such icons, sometimes seen in them echoes of paganism or the influenced of the Catholic world.
The collection of the Moscow Kremlin Museums presents pieces of church sculpture from different art centers. These are art works from Moscow, Novgorod, Rostov Veliky, and the Russian North. The best works are permanently displayed in the gallery of the Church of the Deposition of the Virgin’s Robe.