How I Learned About Icons

I learned about icons the old-fashioned way. I saw one in a shop and it attracted my attention. Then I went back and bought it, several weeks later. This first simple icon shows 6 Russian saints, overseen by Christ in the heavens above. I liked the blue color and the simple dignity shown by these saints.

Then I added great doses of curiosity, reading, visiting Orthodox churches, talking to people, visiting websites, visiting stores and spending money with dealers. You might find this video amusing (or horrifying) but it's how one learns. I saw icon dealer Dennis Easter setting out tens of thousands of dollars of icons on a sidewalk - and ended up buying three of them.



After a few years of mild interest, I met my first iconographer and talked with her quite a bit that afternoon, and corresponded later by email.

Jacky was a reclusive hermit who came off her island for a brief break and was sharing her love of icons on a quiet rainy day in a little church in Swanage, Dorset. I bought an icon from her that day, then later commissioned a second piece, the Nativity.

I enjoy spending time just sitting with my icons. It's not respectful to have them locked up in boxes or closets or drawers. By 2007, this was the state of the collection, assembled tightly for the photograph.

Over the years, the icon collection grew. It took over the living room and began to look like this:



I've learned a great deal from the many books I've accumulated about icons. Having been in publishing all my professional life, I tend to go overboard on books when I get interested in a subject. Here's the current list of icon-related titles:

01.  Icons and Mystical Origins of Christianity - Temple

02. The Icon - Quenot

03. Icons - Cormack

04. Sacred Doorways - Martin

05. Face to Face; Portraits of the divine - Jensen

06. Iconostasis - Florensky

07. Behold the Beauty of the Lord - Nouwen

08. The Glenstal Book of Icons - Collins

09. Icons and Saints - Tradigo

10. Praying with Icons - Forest

11. Life of Jesus in Icons from the Bible of Tbilisi - Moloney

12. The Icon - Weiztmann

13. Light from the East - Evdokimov

14. Holy Image * Hallowed Ground *  Sinai Icons - publ by the Getty Museum

15. The Meaning of Icons - Ouspensky

16. The Light of Christ; Iconography of Gregory Kroug - Tregubov

17. Mystical Language of Icons - Nes

18. A History of Icon Painting - trans. Cook

19. Icons on Azalea - Roeder

20. The Icon Handbook - Coomler

21. The Resurrection and the Icon - Quenot

22. The Rublev Trinity - Bunge

23. Icon: Russian Masterpiece 

24. Icons & the Name of God - Bulgakov 

25. Through Western Eyes - Lamen

26. Oxford Companion of Orthodoxy

27. Engelikonen (Icons of Angels) -- Bentchev 

28. Byzantine Painting - Grabar 

29. Romanesque Painting - Grabar & Nordenfalk

30. Early Medieval Painting - Grabar & Nordenfalk

31. Gothic Painting - DuPont & Gnudi

32. Imprinting the Divine - the Menil Icon Collection

33. The Power of Icons 

34. Icon as Communion - Kordid

35. Early Christian Byzantine Art 

36. Techniques of Icon and Wall Painting - Aidan Hart

37. Icons of their Bodies - Maguire

38. From Mask to Icon; Alaska - Mousalimas

39. The Russian Icon

40. Saints and their Symbols - Lanzi

41. Icons Masterpieces of Russian Art - Polyakova

42. Greek Icons - Drandaki

43. Treasures from Moscow - Museum of Russian Icons

44. Mary Mother of God - Parravicini

45. Icons - Kondakov

46. Theology of the icon v1 - Ouspensky

47. Theology of the icon v2 - Ouspensky

48. The world of Icons - Gerhard

49. The Icon - published by Knopf

50. Icons - Weitzmann published by Alpine

51. Icons; Fascination and Reality

52. Imago Dei; Byzantine Apology for Icons

53. Masterpieces of Early Christian Art and Icons - Temple

54. Divine Beauty - Temple

55. A Brief Illustrated History of Icons - Temple

56. The Rise of Russia - Wallace 

57. Art of the Byzantine Era - David Talbot Rice

58. Russian Icons - David Talbot Rice

59. Russian Icons from the 12-15th Century - UNESCO
60. Palekh - Progress Publishers
61. Byzantine Wall Paintings 

What is an icon of Jesus?

In simplest terms, an icon is a picture of Jesus created with egg tempera paints on a plaster-coated wooden board, by a devout Greek or Russian Orthodox believer, many years ago.

Icons also include other Biblical characters and Saints, are painted carefully, intended to last hundreds of years, and portray "Orthodox theology in color".

Icons are intended to be used for devotional purposes - to bring believers into the presence of God and vice versa. Icons might be described as windows into the eternal - through icons we see aspects of the saints and spiritual beings and the heavens, and through icons they have a strong influence on us.

The comments in this blog are my personal observations, gained from viewing icons and reading about them. As of Lazarus Saturday 2016 my wife and were chrismated into the Orthodox Church. I am not an art historian. But I am an icon lover.

[Unless specified otherwise, these icons come from my own collections. All images can be enlarged if you click on them] 

Here's an example of a Russian icon of Jesus:

Here's another Russian icon of Jesus. It's a bit larger, older, and painted on a silver background instead of gold.

In these icons Jesus is holding a bible in his left hand and holding up his right hand in blessing. He is dressed in red and blue robes. He has a long narrow face, dark skin, a moustache and beard, long hair parted in the middle, and a halo. His name and title are written above him on either side. Jesus is easily recognizable in icons because he is usually painted in precisely the same way, the same clothing, and with others around him deferring to him.

Here we see another ion, with the same basic pose. The background or field of this icon has been painted with a pale yellow paint over gold but it still has a "heavenly" glow in the light. 

Not all icons are painted on wood. Three other media forms are relatively common - frescos (plaster wall paintings), mosaics (tile) and brass castings. Here's a brass one from our collection:

And here is Jesus in wooden carving form (partially 3-dimensional).

Jesus is not always shown in the same way. Here's an icon known as "The Face Not Made By Hands" where the image of Jesus' face is shown on a napkin or cloth, usually held by one angel and shown here surrounded by other angels.

Icons may show Jesus in certain poses or contexts that convey information about Him or specific aspects of His ministry. For example, this is Jesus, the Good Shepherd. Unlike the previous icons, this is not Russian and not old. I painted it myself last year.

Icons of Jesus may show a scene during Jesus' earthly ministry. I will devote one or more posts to the icons of the Passion of Christ. For now, we will just show a rare icon of an old saint named Simeon, who is holding the baby Jesus when he was brought by his parents to the Temple to be dedicated.

In the following icon we see The Ascension of Jesus, described in the first chapter of the book of Acts:

[Luke says] I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. 

On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

They gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.

 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” 

This icon was completed in 2013 by iconographer Teresa Harrison in Southern California. It is now headed to a church in Texas.

Here is a small icon of Jesus depicting Him as Lord of the Universe, Hope of the World. This portrayal goes far beyond the simple human Galilean preacher that Jesus is made out to be by some people.

Thanks for stopping by.