Christ the Pantocrator
"Christ the Pantocrator"
Wood, tempera.
Oleh Skoropadskyi, 2001
Every work of art manifests an organic unity. The understanding of beauty always goes hand in hand with such terms as harmony, order and aesthetics. It is through the aid of these terms that we look upon and appreciate the world’s artistic masterpieces. We also know that the icon looks somewhat different from ordinary naturalistic art, although it conforms to the rules and principles of ordered composition and harmonious matching of colors. It should be mentioned that the number of those who can distinguish an icon from among other forms of art continues to increase. Following the implosion of the Soviet Union, the popularity of icons increased greatly. It has been traditional for almost every Catholic or Orthodox family to have an icon in their home. Additionally, even in the Protestant world there exists some interest in Byzantine iconography.
Pondering the meaning of iconography, one is lead to consider its meaning and how it differs from other branches of art. Is it a distorted perspective or is it similar to the faum portrait? To answer this question we should turn our attention to the sources of iconography. It is important to understand that the icon was not created in a vacuum. Rather it arose out of and was preceded by an atmosphere in which Christianity was persecuted. In this spirit of prayer and persecution a new type of image was created that the Church would bear through her history, keeping its traditions and symbols.
In fact, iconography may be the only branch of art which, despite persecution, has survived nearly two thousand years of history. Because of this, the history of the icon and the history of the Church go hand in hand.
What is the role of the icon?
"The Mystical Supper"
Cardboard, acrylic.
Liuba Kohut, 2001
In its origin, the primary aim of the icon was to be a Holy Scripture to the illiterate. Christ came into this world both as the Word and as the Image. Essentially, this mission is common even today. Our children learn from pictures. When they are older, they can read. The icon precedes this and opens more essential theological and symbolic meanings which are hidden in the layers of paint.
Icons are an attempt to represent the invisible in a way that reminds us of the supernatural and concentrates our attention on prayer and contemplation. Likewise, God very often speaks to our hearts through our eyes because the sense of sight is the most powerful of the human senses. This truth was recognized very early in the history of Christianity and was used as a means to make the Gospel better known, this being done long before the advent of the printing press.
The importance of graphic representation is evident in mural paintings, sculpture and stained glass from the medieval period. It is also evident in early iconography where the didactic purpose of some icons is obvious. However, the didactic purpose, where it appears, is always accompanied by the devotional aspect, which is the true end.
What features should guide the study of icons?
"The Trinity"
Wood, tempera.
Roman Los, 2001.
When we think about the icon it is important to keep three dimensions of this one reality in mind:
1. Academic knowledge
2. Artistic value
3. Theological vision
Should we neglect any one of these three dimensions we would deprive ourselves of understanding the full meaning of the icon. By neglecting the theological element, the icon becomes an historical monument or document which transmits valuable information about history or folklore, but as a result loses its soul. If we neglect the academic aspect, we condemn ourselves to a subjectivity that inhibits our ability to distinguish between what is essential and what is secondary. By failing to make such distinctions we are in danger of altering the very transcendent Truth which the icon points to. To neglect the aesthetic element is obviously to misjudge the icon itself. In admitting that a religious subject requires first and foremost the use of the most advanced artistic techniques and talent in the execution of the work, we do not mean to say that all such works of art are in fact the expression of a culture at its highest point of development. So called “primitive” art can also express a very profound idea.
Iconography as a Labor of Love
At its root, the icon is a portrayal of Christ's image and its imprint on the world. He sees and loves us and He wants us to see Him. The icon helps us to open our range of spiritual vision and lead us to deeper contemplation, mystical contact with our Creator. This is the foundation of Christian pictorial art. Iconography is a labor of love. The iconographer prepares for his work with prayer, penance and fasting and this remains an essential part of his life while he is at work. In representing Christ or his holy mother, the iconographer must remain in close contact with them through prayer and contemplation.
In speaking of sight, we should bear in mind that the way to pray before an icon is with eyes open. The eyes of an icon are always enlarged, while the mouth is correspondingly reduced, so that in prayer we can look more easily into the holy representation so that, in rare and privileged cases, the image can look back at us. Because God loves us, He turns to us a visible face, a human face, a face of absolute beauty, to which we can express our own love.
By: Oleh Skoropadsky
The iconographer’s prayer by Dionysus of Fourna (Greek)
Lord Jesus Christ our God:
Thou, possessing a divine and infinite nature, having become incarnate for the salvation of man in the womb of the Virgin Mary; Who, having imprinted the sacred features of Thy immaculate face on the holy veil, and through healing the illness of the governor Abgar and bringing about the enlightenment of his soul into the full knowledge of our true God; Who, through Thy holy Spirit brought wisdom to Thy holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke to depict the beauty of thy most innocent mother, who carried Thee in her arms as a child and said 'May the grace of Him who was born of me, through me be imparted to them’, Thou, Divine Master of all things: Enlighten and bring wisdom to my soul and heart and mind; Direct my hands for the irreproachable and excellent depiction of the form of Thy person and of Thy immaculate Mother and of all thy Saints, to the glory and to the splendour and beautification of Thy (very) holy Church; Forgive the sins of those who will venerate these icons and refer honour to the Prototype in Heaven by bowing before them. Redeem them from any bad influence and instruct them with good advice: Through the prayers of Thy immaculate mother, of the holy and illustrious apostle and evangelist, Luke, and of all the saints.
AMEN
The Following provides historical information on Icons taken from Wikipedia.org. Please note works sited in this passage are found at the bottom of the text.
Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek εικον (image) and γραφειν (to write). A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the Byzantine and Orthodox Christian tradition.
Christian iconography
Christian art began, about two centuries after Christ, by borrowing motifs from Roman Imperial imagery, classical Greek and Roman religion and popular art - the motif of Christ in Majesty owes something to both Imperial portraits and depictions of Zeus. In the Late Antique period iconography began to be standardised, and to relate more closely to Biblical texts, although many gaps in the canonical Gospel narratives were plugged with matter from the apocryphal gospels. Eventually the Church would succeed in weeding most of these out, but some remain, like the ox and ass in the Nativity of Christ.
The Theotokos of Tikhvin of ca. 1300, an example of the Hodegetria type of Madonna and Child.
After the period of Byzantine iconoclasm iconographical innovation was regarded as unhealthy, if not heretical, in the Eastern Church, though it still continued at a glacial pace. More than in the West, traditional depictions were often considered to have authentic or miraculous origins, and the job of the artist was to copy them with as little deviation as possible. The Eastern church also never accepted the use of monumental high relief or free-standing sculpture, which it found too reminiscent of paganism. Most modern Eastern Orthodox icons are very close to their predecessors of a thousand years ago, though development, and some shifts in meaning, have occurred - for example the old man wearing a fleece in conversation with Saint Joseph usually seen in Orthodox Nativities seems to have begun as one of the shepherds, or the prophet Isaiah, but is now usually understood as the "Tempter" (Satan).[11]
In both East and West, numerous iconic types of Christ, Mary and saints and other subjects were developed; the number of named types of icons of Mary, with or without the infant Christ, was especially large in the East, whereas Christ Pantocrator was much the commonest image of Christ. Especially important depictions of Mary include the Hodegetria and Panagia types. Traditional models evolved for narrative paintings, including large cycles covering the events of the Life of Christ, the Life of the Virgin, parts of the Old Testament, and, increasingly, the lives of popular saints. Especially in the West, a system of attributes developed for identifying individual figures of saints by a standard appearance and symbolic objects held by them; in the East they were more likely to identified by text labels.
From the Romanesque period sculpture on churches became increasingly important in Western art, and probably partly because of the lack of Byzantine models, became the location of much iconographic innovation, along with the illuminated manuscript, which had already taken a decisively different direction from Byzantine equivalents, under the influence of Insular art and other factors. Developments in theology and devotional practice produced innovations like the subject of the Coronation of the Virgin and the Assumption, both associated with the Franciscans, as were many other developments. Most painters remained content to copy and slightly modify the works of others, and it is clear that the clergy, by whom or for whose churches most art was commissioned, often specified what they wanted shown in great detail.
The theory of typology, by which the meaning of most events of the Old Testament was understood as a "type" or pre-figuring of an event in the life of, or aspect of, Christ or Mary was often reflected in art, and in the later Middle Ages came to dominate the choice of Old Testament scenes in Western Christian art.
Source:
wikipedia.org
Works cited:
* Białostocki, Jan, Iconography, Dictionary of The History of Ideas, Online version, University of Virginia Library, Gale Group, 2003 [1]
* Cook, Pam and Mieke Bernink, eds. 1999. The Cinema Book. 2nd ed. London: BFI Publishing. ISBN 0851707262.
* G Schiller, Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. I,1971 (English trans from German), Lund Humphries, London, ISBN 853312702