I know less than nothing about Orthodox iconography, but this passage from Nikolai Levsky's story The Sealed Angel gives a vivid impression of the aesthetic and spiritual delight to be found therein, most especially for Christians, I imagine:

"Luka Kirlovich passionately loved holy icons, and, my dear sirs, he owned the most wonderful icons, of the most artful workmanship, ancient, either real Greek, or of the first Novgorod or Stroganov icon painters. Icon after icon shone not so much by their casings as by the keenness and fluency of their marvelous artistry, I've never seen such loftiness anywhere since! ...You look at Our Lady, how the inanimate trees bow down before her purity, and your heart melts and trembles; you look at the angel...joy! This angel was truly something indescribable. His face--I can see it now--is most brightly divine and so swiftly succoring ; his gaze is tender; his hair is tied with a fine ribbon, its ends curling around his ears, a sign of his hearing everything from everywhere; his robe is shining, all spangled with gold; his armor is feathery, his shoulders are girded; on his chest the face of the infant Emmanuel; in his right hand a cross, in his left a flaming sword. Wondrous! Wondrous!..."