Byzantine Sacred Art: Orthodox Icons and Iconography

Iconic images are painted in reverse order in comparison to painting with other mediums: from dark to light. Light is the main "color" iconographer works with, from brilliant gold backgrounds to rays of pure light shining from the garments and holy faces. Applying lights on different parts of an icon is how a traditional icon is created. With properly used egg tempera, in subsequent layers and subtle shades, the image is being born right in front of iconographer's eyes. True icon masters believe there is only one, Divine Iconographer, the Holy Spirit, and all we do is to land our hand as a tool, nothing more. This is why traditional icons are never signed at the front. Most often, they are not signed at all, but if they are the signature can only be found on the back of the icon. The very few of the ancient iconographers who have signed their works wrote: "Through the hand of the sinful servant of God" and their name.

Another characteristic of traditional icons is the application of the principles of sacred geometry. On the icons of high quality even the untrained eye can easily recognize basic geometric shapes formed by the composition. Beside halo circles, there are often triangular forms within the squares, within the rectangle, etc. Some in-depth studies of the most famous iconographic images (icons, frescoes and mosaics) show multitude of forms and shapes emanating from one central point. Successful application of these principles enhances the beauty and harmony of the whole, without resulting in rigidity and motionlessness of the figures depicted. More importantly, it conveys the calmness, restful and prayerful frame of mind.

There is nothing abrupt or out of place on icons; their purpose is never to shock, intimidate or provoke, but to soothe, comfort and lead us into prayer.

Iconography is a prayer with the brush

Iconographer's work is a prayer with the brush, a highly spiritual discipline. Writing icons is a continuous exercise in humility, done through prayer, fast, repentance and Holy Communion; it is a collective sacred art owned by the Church and imparted through the grace of the Holy Spirit, not an artistic adventure of an individual where one's own personality, ego, dreams and vanity are to be poured or fulfilled. Iconographer is a servant and his spirituality (or the lack of it) is always visible on the icons he creates. It is not without a reason that the greatest iconographers in the history of the Church are not celebrated artists, but pious monks and fervent Christians whose only desire was to serve the Lord and glorify the Church (Theophanes the Greek, Andrei Rublev, Gregory Kroug, Photios Kontoglou, etc.) The rewards an iconographer seeks are not monetary gain and worldly acknowledgments and fame, but of much higher, spiritual order.

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