The Transfiguration Icon

I have been asked several times to do a post on the meaning of the Icons in the Eastern Churches. Here is a rather detailed post on that subject. Please take your time and read if you are interested. I will do my best to answer any questions.

In the Eastern Orthodox Christian churches, we use icons instead of statues as the Roman Catholic Church uses. The Roman Catholic religious sculptures are well known and many are simply breathtaking, they are famous as well. The Pieta, instantly comes to mind as the best example of Rennaisance Catholic inspired sculpture. Today, we are going to explore the Eastern Orthodox version of the representation of the spiritual qualities of the saints and representations of actions and are not supposed to be realistic images. I stress that these are not ‘graven images’.

Without going into the Iconoclasms of the past. I offer the following excerpts from some websites (the learned here explain far better than i can) so that the Icons of the Eastern Orthodox churches are understood by our readers:

An icon is a pictorial replication and a spiritual representation of a saint, biblical scene or historical religious event. A held object, a style of dress, a color or scene in the background is duplicated so the identity is instantly recognizable, despite barriers of language, distance and time. The word is derived from the Greek “eikon,” which means to resemble. The icon seeks to reveal the divine through visible and familiar content. In this sense, the icon has been called “a meeting between heaven and earth”. For through them we receive a vision of the spiritual world. The stylized character of the icon shows man and nature restored to their original beauty as reflections of the celestial glory. Icons have played a role in Christianity since the days of the Apostles. St. Luke has traditionally been known as the first iconographer. An art form that has resisted change, modern icons have evolved very little. Today they still bear a strong resemblance to icons of the Byzantine period.

The veneration of the icon should not be misinterpreted as being made to the physical picture itself. These gestures pass over from the icon to the person depicted, thus the honor which is given to the icon passes over to the “prototype”, the person himself. As we venerate the icons, we are reminded of the high spiritual values and virtues of the holy ones depicted, and are encouraged to pursue those same values and virtues ourselves. In Orthodox tradition, icons are not intended to be realistic paintings of people and events, but rather are symbolic interpretations of the great spiritual qualities of the saints – such as sacrifice, humility, devotion, faith and love. Every element and detail in the icon, from color choice to hand position to the placement and size of secondary figures, has symbolic meaning based upon the Scriptures, the writings of the Fathers, and other theological sources. Thus the Holy Icons are one more piece of that which the Church calls Holy Tradition. They are truly the Gospel message in line, form and color.

QUESTION:

What is the significance of the placement of the fingers of the right hand I notice in icons of Christ and certain saints?

The fingers are arranged to form the following letters — IC XC — which are the first and last letters of “Jesus” and “Christ” in Greek.

Hence, the index finger points upward, forming an “I.” The middle finger is curved to form a “C.” The fourth finger crosses over the thumb to form an “X,” while the little finger is curved in a manner similar to that of the middle finger, thereby forming another “C.”

In Christ,

Father John Matusiak
OCA Communications Director

The following is a very interesting read:

Color Symbolism

In iconography there are two distinct categories of colors. First there is white, red, green and blue, used to express life, purity, peace and goodness. The second category of colors is black, brown, grey and yellow, and they are used to express danger and impurity. Christian beliefs follow the thought of Dionysus the Aeropagite who distinguishes three types of symbols: noble, middle and base.

What do colors represent in iconography?

White: is the color that represents eternal life and purity.

Blue: represents celestial beings, God’s dwelling place, the sky.

Red: symbolizes activity. In Hebrew thought, red represents life. We find it mentioned in several books of the Old Testament: in the Second Book of Samuel, Saul dressed the daughters of Israel in red garments: “O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with luxury…” (2 Samuel 1:24). In Proverbs we find that the perfect wife wears red, in the book of Jermiah, Jerusalem beautifies herself in a red garment. The martyr’s clothes are red, the clothing of the seraphims are red also. Red is also the color that depicts health, fire and the Last Judgment.

Purple: purple is the symbol of royalty, wealth, power, and priestly dignity. In the book of Daniel we learn that the king dressed himself in purple, and in the Psalms it is mentioned that the king and the queen are robed in purple.

Green: in the Holy Scriptures, green represents nature and vegetation, and it is thus representative of growth and fertility. It is mentioned in the Song of Songs and the Book of Jeremiah. In iconography it is used for the robes of martyrs and prophets.

Brown: represents density and lack of radiance. Brown is composed of red, blue, green and black, and it is used to depict soil, rocks and buildings. It is also used as a symbol of poverty and renunciation for the dark garments of monks and ascetics.

Black: represents absence of life; it symbolizes a void. It is the opposite of white. While white represents the fullness of life, black represents the lack of it. Monks and Great Schema monks wear black garments, as a symbol of their renunciation of all that is material.

Yellow: representing sadness is used in the icon of the Savior being placed in the tomb. In Deuteronomy it is mentioned as a sign of misfortune, bad harvest and blight.

Creation of an Icon

In iconography an icon is not painted, but written. The process of writing an icon is long and tedious. Many hours, weeks, sometimes months are spent in the creation of an icon, depending of course on the size and complexity of it. A Russian monk remarked once that “…icons are not civil paintings. They are not for museums. They are not decorations. They are a reflection of God that has become man. Icons carry the real feeling and teachings of Orthodoxy.”

The iconographer does not have the right to change an icon just to be different and creative. As we mentioned earlier, the creation of an icon is not the painter’s own work. He is more like a co-author. In the Painter’s Manual, preserved on Mount Athos, the master advises him who aspires to become an icon painter to pray before the icon of Christ and that of the Mother of God, because the art of painting comes from God, who alone can guide the painter’s hand to give form to the mysteries of God.

Preparation to work on an icon is similar to the preparation for going to church: with prayers and fasting. Painting an icon is a liturgical work. Preparing to paint an icon is like preparing for Liturgy. Always start with prayer. The following is the iconographer’s prayer: “O Divine Lord of all that exists, You have illumined the Apostle and Evangelist Luke with Your Most Holy Spirit, thereby enabling him to represent the most Holy Mother, the one who held You in her arms and said: `the Grace of Him Who has been born of me is spread throughout the world. Enlighten and direct our souls, our hearts and our spirits. Guide the hands of your unworthy servant, so that we may worthily and perfectly portray your icon, that of Your Holy Mother and of all the saints, for the glory and adornment of Your Holy Church. Forgive our sins and the sins of those who will venerate these icons, and who, standing devoutly before them, give homage those they represent. Protect them from all evil and instruct them with good counsel. This we ask through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Apostle Luke, and all the saints, now and ever and unto ages of ages.”

The materials used to create an icon are of several kinds. The most widely used is wood. The wood has to be hard and non-resinous, such as birch, lime or cypress. In most wood panels two wedges of hard wood are inserted horizontally in the back to prevent warping. The surface of the wood panel is then covered with a sheet of linen that is glued to the wood and on top of it are applied many layers of gesso. (Gesso is a special mixture of plaster and glue that when it hardens it is very strong.) In general seven layers of gesso are applied, and each layer is sanded after it has dried. Because the drying process can take a while, it may take a week or more to prepare the surface of one icon before painting can begin. The final sanding is very important; the surface must remain silky smooth.

Please read the rest here

Some Icons are shown here .  And here .

More:

APOLOGIA OF ST JOHN DAMASCENE AGAINST THOSE WHO DECRY HOLY IMAGES.