Hmmm, for me personally, there's a quality to the style in which Mary's face is painted in the second which I find somewhat unpleasant and distracting, though I appreciate her eyes and the serenity of her face - over all I do like these. Who are the three being depicted in the third? The text is all Greek to me.
Are these representative of a particular style of icons?
Those are the three hierarchs - St. Basil the Great, St. John Chrysostom, and St. Gregory the Theologian. They were very influential in the early Church.
Someone else may correct me, but I think it's proper to say these are all Byzantine style.
I almost included one of St. Seraphim of Sarov, but most of his that I like are not Byzantine and I didn't want to confuse matters.
As far as distracting elements and unpleasant expressions and so on, sometimes I think it has more to do with the artist's style. When I first chose a few icons, I couldn't afford to buy any so I searched through MANY images and narrowed it down bit by bit until I found a few that were free of any kind of distraction, to me ( and eventually had a print made of a few). I wish I could put up pictures of those exact ones, but I couldn't find them. I actually changed my post quickly because the first one I put up of Christ had a very distracting expression when the forum enlarged the picture and I could see it better. So I found a new one and edited.
That may all come down to personal preference. I'm not very experienced in this at all. I have used my little paper reproductions, and I now have a tiny icon of Christ in my car that I really like, and some other small icons given to me are in the altar at Church right now.
And since my baptism I have a special affinity for the icon of Christ in the iconostasis, that was right beside me during my baptism.
I will say this though. I may have been overly concerned with the exact expression of the icons I chose to have printed. I don't mean to sound all weirdly spooky, but simply to say that the sense I get from an icon, as I become familiar with it, and pray, over time, can seem to change a bit. Sometimes the eyes seem to be soft and full of love, and other times I notice different aspects of the expression.
It may be purposeful? I am reminded that I was told that one who reads the Scriptures in Church should ideally read without a lot of emotion, and allow the hearer to get what is appropriate for themselves from the reading. (I've also heard this is advisable for the sake of monks or others who may be attending a service but are still deeply involved in whatever spiritual thoughts they may have reached through prayer beforehand, and so not to disturb them.)
Just some thoughts. I am by no means expert, or even very experienced.
