Icons for St. Anthony's Dome, Part 14

The scaffold is down. The iconographers are gone. Paint is on the ceiling. The priest is very happy.

There's not much more for me to show, or to say. The chandelier will go back up soon and the front pews will be replaced. The worshippers will inspect, learn, enjoy and be inspired. Praise God.

I may not have said this elsewhere, but you can click on any image to see it in a larger size.

Icons for St. Anthony's Dome, Part 13

Today the iconographers are working on the fine details, all around the pendentives. I asked how they knew when to stop, and Dmitry conceded that it's a challenge to decide exactly when the job is done.

There's no obvious stopping point - there are always things that could be touched up - adjustments to make; repairs to paint or plaster; additional nuances in shading or color, etc.

We watched as the two painters moved slowly around the barrel, making small adjustments to each icon in turn, using just the paint color on their brush at the time.

Here are views of the four evangelists and their symbols.

John - "In the beginning was the word"

Luke - "Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative"

Mark - "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God"

Matthew - "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David"

The eagle



The ox

The lion

The man

Icons for St. Anthony's Dome, Part 12

We are drawing near to the end of this project. Today I took pictures that should enable you to compare similar drawings. First, some of the trimmings and decorations on the periphery of the main images.

Now it's time to move onto the faces of the four evangelists. They are NOT completed, nor were they labeled when I took the pictures. But if you are familiar with iconography for the Apostles, you may be able to tell who's who.

And here are two sets of hands, each holding a parchment which will be inscribed with the first verses from their Gospel.

Now we can go to the creatures that represent the evangelists.

And finally, the two versions of the Pantocrator icon of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages; Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not created, of one essence with the Father through Whom all things were made.

Painted on the inside of the dome, looking down; an image on the underside of a hemispheric ceiling.

Painted on a canvas fastened to the inside of the drum; a curved image (laterally) and flat (vertically).

Wow!

Icons for St. Anthony's Dome, Part 11

Work continues on the iconography in St. Anthony the Great Antiochian Church, San Diego. There are more cups of pre-mixed colors than before, as many parts of the images are being touched up and little changes are being made around the dome.

A few years ago I saw some cast brass images for sale on eBay. Being completely unable to resist unique works of art, I bought them. Each of these is nearly 2 feet tall and weighs 25 pounds. They came from a church in Holland that was being demolished.

You can see these are the 4 symbols used to represent the 4 evangelists. 

Hopefully, in the next post you will see that these figures have been completed, but it's interesting to observe even at this intermediate stage that the personalities and expressions have already appeared.

Here are some final views of Elijah

 

 and Jesus.

Icons for St. Anthony's Dome, Part 10

Sunday and Monday were days off for everyone. Tuesday, some of the scaffolding was taken down. That gave the iconographers more room to work. Here's what we saw when we entered the church:

One painter working on the drum, the other working on preparing lunch. They soon broke for a meal and we were able to climb up and take some photos of the dome.

They are putting colored marble-look paints on the area between the drum and the pendentives.

There are some questions about how to disguise the speaker grill, lights and air conditioning vent.

At this point it is also difficult to get a good color balance on the photographs, so you will have to rely on our assurance that the paintings look great. 

Here are two different images of the dome and Pantocrator icon. The color is slightly different but I think we will see those variations in reality because the light coming through the windows is constantly changing. In addition, the chandelier will occupy some of the space that is now open.

The figures and evangelists will be much more detailed, very soon. Come back again to see!