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.
