This paper examines the Western European reception of the Christian icon, arguing that while its theological foundations are rooted in the Byzantine tradition, its modern understanding has been largely mediated through the Russian Orthodox context. In the medieval period, Western encounters with icons occurred primarily through Byzantium, particularly in relation to Christological debates and the iconoclastic controversy. Following the Great Schism and the rise of Renaissance naturalism, Western Europe gradually lost a living icon tradition, and the icon came to be perceived as an archaic or exotic form of sacred image. The paper focuses on the nineteenth- and twentieth-century rediscovery of the icon in Western Europe, shaped decisively by Russian émigré theologians, artists, and museum exhibitions. This mediation reframed the icon as a mystical and timeless object, often presented as the paradigmatic expression of Eastern Christianity, while obscuring the diversity of Byzantine, Greek, Balkan, and local Orthodox traditions. Drawing on visual theology and decolonial theory, the paper reassesses the production of knowledge about the icon and highlights issues of authority, cultural hierarchy, and inequality embedded in modern interpretations of Orthodox visual culture.