Eastern Orthodox Only What makes an icon an icon and not just art?

Iconography is the Sacred Art of the Church...

It is "written", which means that every element in the icon's images carries a meaning from the Gospel of Christ...

We cannot depict the Holy Trinity in an Icon...

Nor God the Father...

Nor God the Holy Spirit...

For these are without Image...

But we can depict God the Son Incarnate...

So that in pre-literate times, the Holy Books were too precious and too hard to duplicate for everyone to have their own written material...

Nor would most know how to read them if they did have them...

Christ Himself taught more by His Life than by His Old Testament words...

The Gospels are human accounts of that Life witnessed and touched by men...

The Written evokes living and moving images of that Life...

Iconography in the Church does the same, yet not in a naturalistic way...

But instead in an Iconic way -

No perspectival representations but all flat...

I remember an art class that taught the students that iconography was done by primitive artists who did not have a cognitive grasp of perspective and a re-presentation of reality according to naturalistic principles of artistic expression... And that the "discovery" of perspective was a great "break-out" for the Middle Ages of the West... Also color subtlety needed more nuance - Bold colors are, well, bold... They do not follow the transitional shadings common in nature... So that when artists corrected iconic "art" to be more naturalistic, it was a big break-through for the history of art... Or so the story goes...

Except for the fact that it is not true...

Iconography tells the story of the subject depicted, just as the Church's Divine Liturgy tells the story of Christ's birth, life, death and Resurrection by re-presenting it in the Service as Christ commanded His Apostles to do... Pre-literate cultures think in images carried in words not written but heard, and images presented in the Holy Icons re-present the persons and events that comprise the Mystery of the Faith of Christ...

So that if you copy an icon with your paint and board or canvas, you will have a copy of an icon... We use a lot of copies like this in our Churches... They are very inexpensive to do this way... When I read Matt 7:6 I always envision the holy icons being desecrated by the haters of God, as they commonly are when Churches are attacked and destroyed by non-Christians... "Do not give holy things to dogs..." One of the things that makes them holy is their use in Church and in other set-aside places for worship... We see them as windows into heaven, and our prayers before them passing through these windows as incense before the Throne of the Lamb to the one's depicted in images of paint and wood... We can, for instance, pray to the Holy Apostle Paul before his Icon, and doing so increases the efficacy of our prayer... Doing so in a Church does so (increases the efficacy) as well, as does doing so in great need, as does doing so after fasting and other prayers, as does so in great pains and travails... All prayer is not the same...

So let this be a start for you, Lammchen...

Perhaps George might like to chime in too...


Arsenios

In a word, it is not the wood and paint that differentiate an icon from ordinary art...

But the Blessing of the Lord!

Icons are not artistic enterprises, but instructional ones...

And yes, they are beautiful, and we love their beauty...

Here are some Church Icons in this 2 minute vignette of Elder Aimilianos...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX6L6klv_CY


Arsenios

Give this a minute to load:

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgur...ZTiAhVBi1QKHetoCDEQMwhWKAQwBA&iact=mrc&uact=8

Lämmchen said:

I have read through all your posts and I appreciate the time you put into them. I'm not quite sure I understand the difference though. Are you inferring that there is something more supernatural happening?

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Is God supernatural?

Christ sent His Ikon on a Napkin to take to a man to cure the remainder of his leprosy, as I recall...

Held the cloth to His Face, did He not?

We have Myrrh-streaming icons, miracle working icons, and plain old everyday icons, prints of icons, original paint and tempura icons, and on and on...

I have only had significant encounter with one miracle working icon - The Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God - Russian...

In Russia, when this icon is being transported by train, people line up along the tracks as the train passes by to receive the blessing...

https://i.etsystatic.com/15572923/r/il/1f9a88/1904849631/il_794xN.1904849631_kiyb.jpg

So supernatural events CAN occur in connection with icons, but normally they are more of a reminder to us to remember to pray...

Soldiers will take an icon of their Name-Saint to their billets to maintain their spiritual life while serving...

Praying to God in His Saints is a good and pious thing to do, and has benefits...

Especially if that icon has been blessed and anointed and sprinkled with Holy Water by one's Priest at the Altar...

We are an ongoing deep-prayer Community...

Praying before Icons is a part of that prayer...


Arsenios

Lämmchen said:

Are you inferring that there is something more supernatural happening?

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The difference is in the Blessing given them...

If you look at commercial advertising, you will see a very different iconography...

Demonic Iconography tends to prevail...

And a Blessing is a supra-natural event...

"You have been blessed in the Name of the Lord..."

But super-natural???

Not so much...


Arsenios

Lämmchen said:

The difference is in the Blessing given them.

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Yes.

That part confuses me too.

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OK...

Is there a biblical back up that icons are blessed by God moreso than the art of other Christian artists?

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Well, a painting of a pig eating sewage painted by a Christian is one thing...

And an iconic depiction of Christ Pantocrator Blessing written by a Christian iconographer is another...

Does one really need a Bible verse telling you that the pig drawing and the Cathedral depiction carry differing blessings?

Seldom will you fine the same person doing both...

Consecration of purpose is a feature of the soul, you see...

Or not...

In order to write icons, after training by an iconographer, one must then receive the Blessing of the Church to do so...

This will normally involve the blessing of the parish Priest where it will become a part of the Church building...

It can merely involve a parishioner asking for one to be done for him or her...

In each case it is God giving the blessing physically with His Body, assuming sincerity of heart...

In any major life undertaking, we normally seek the Blessing of God through the hands of His Servant, the Priest...

The very Priest who will be required by God to render account for our soul...

And a Blessing from a Priest is not merely permission...

A parishioner I know sought his Priest's Blessing to buy a Harley motorcycle to travel the state for his work...

Father said: "You have my permission... You do not have my Blessing..."

He bought a Buick...

And lived...

We live through Blessings in the Body of Christ...

And we give them by our love for one another...

Freely we received...

Freely we give...

I like to be sneaky with many of the blessings I give...

That way they can't blame me when things go right...

[Fearing vainglory - No matter how deserving I am!! ]

[I am a student of saying the wrong thing, as you may have guessed!]


Arsenios

Lämmchen said:

Okay so let me get this sorted...

An icon is:
1) a physical blessing of God
2) a blessing of the Church
3) a parishioner asks for one to be made

I still don't see how that is different from what Christian art is.

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Perhaps then this might help:

1) An Icon is written, not created, by the iconographer...
2) It is Blessed by God in His Body, the Church...
3) Sometimes a parishioner CAN ask or commission an icon to be made for personal use...

Most icons these days are reproductions...
Hand written originals are expensive...
Icons proclaim the Gospel in images...
Just as the Bible proclaims the Gospel in words...

Christian Art is a very broad concept...
Someone reads the Gospel of John...
Then draws a nice picture of what he thinks the Crucifixion of Christ looked like...
THAT is NOT iconography...

IF seh/he were to imitate an Icon of the Crucifixion...
THEN he/she would be getting closer...


Arsenios

Lämmchen said:

I'm trying to really see what you're saying about all this but as I see it from the other side, I know that Christians who create art about Jesus are also blessed by God and oftentimes the Church has commissioned the piece. How is that different from an icon?

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The difference may be in the consecration of the iconographer, the consecration of the icon, and the use to which it is put...

If you are asking me to define the difference in God's Grace accruing to a person who paints or creates his or her version of "Christian Art" and that accruing to the iconographer creating icons for Ekklesiastical worship, I do not know how to do so... If you create an image of Jesus and find God's Blessings in your life as a consequence, or at least a presumed consequence, then that will be a private matter between you and God... Similarly for the Blessing accruing to an iconographer from God in his creation and dedication of his iconographic works...

You see, our icons are out of the Faith of Christ in His Body, the Ekklesia...
They are blessed by the Priest...
They are written by the iconographer...
Working thus in the Blessing of the Body of Christ...

They are thus not a private works of art...
They are not private versions of an artist's imaginative depiction...
They are highly stylized requiring specific elements...
The colors have significances...
Everything in them is prescribed to be there...
They are written in obedience, not creativity...

So if the artist and the iconographer end up with similar icons...
And if God blesses them both...
And others are impacted similarly, at least reportedly...
Then what is the difference in God's Grace?

I have no idea...
I only know that standing before an icon in prayer is standing before the person that icon depicts...
I do not know if that is true of an artist's rendition...
I would hope so...

But look - I used to spend a lot of time working my way through translations of Greek Scripture into English in a was that permitted English to function as if it were actually Greek except with English words... I would diagram the sentences, and massage the glosses, trying to get the English to behave as the Greek behaved... With differing results... But at the end of spending 30 minutes to an hour on a sentence doing this, I felt a lot closer to God for having done so... I experienced His Grace...

I think you will do so as well with the time you spend in the treasury of your heart creating Christian Art...
And for that, as a private matter, you should do well - Time spent in Christian concerns is a good thing...
I really cannot take it much further than that, for I simply do not know...

I do know that Icons are the Sacred Art of the Church...

And they are different than simply Christian Artists creating Christian Art...

I know a (now reposed) Christian singer who created Christian Songs our of Bible stories and other writings...

I saw her as a singer of Christian Folk Art... It was not the Ekklesiastical Chanting of the Church...

Here she sings her song to her Guardian Angel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ06tEP_wUI

And here she is singing her song of the Czar Nicholas and his family at the time of their being martyred by the Atheists...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoDUIBfECpg

These are artistic and pious renditions...

They are not Ekklesiastical Music of the Church...

The difference is that between the Heavenly Food that is our Lord...

And the delicious food from our kitchens...

I suspect the difference is similar for Icons and private Christian Art...


Arsenios

Here is a little intro by an iconographer...



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PITEH4FcDJ4



Arsenios

Lämmchen said:

Would I be wrong in stating that you believe that the icons are not considered icons unless your Church has proclaimed that the person "writing" them is sanctioned to do so and that the iconographer does so for the purpose of the Church and not for private individuals?

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The icons in individual hands are extensions of the Body of Christ, which is the Church... Now a satanist can steal an icon, and it is still an icon, but is no longer functioning as an icon... Just as Judas was an Icon of Christ, having eaten His Body and drank His Blood, but then turned from Christ and betrayed Him... So it is not a matter of possession, exactly...

But I think you are seeking, as an artist, to know if YOU painted an icon, would it be an icon of the Church? And the answer is no... It would be your icon... And if you paint Christian Art, is that art the art of the Orthodox Church, and the answer is no... The Orthodox Church is the functioning and organic Body of Christ, and all that is within Her is done by Blessing and Prayer and Intercession... This includes the Holy Icons and the iconography of the Churches...

So yes, you can paint icons outside the Church, and do with them whatever you wish, but until they are blessed by the Church, they are not the icons of the Church...

And if you do so, and treat them piously and prayerfully in their creation, God's Grace will flow to you through your efforts...

Did you watch the video "Iconography"?

I put writing in quotes because I have read arguments in articles and blogs online that "writing" is a modern term that doesn't quite fit and painting would be a better term used.

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We use writing because they are presenting persons and stories and the Bible in images that are not artistic...

We have no part with the Latin iconography of naturalism and statues... That influence came in to the Russian Church via Peter the (not so) Great's love of all things Western, including the Latin Church, and the result was the Revolution of 1918 and the rise of the Atheists and Communism and the persecution of the Church... So that Church Iconography is not perspectival, but places all things on a single plane for contemplation of meaning... They are also made with hidden meanings not perceived, which is the perhaps greater part of their value... In plain sight unseen and unseeable... If you study EOC Iconography, you may come to know what I am talking about...


Arsenios

Lämmchen said:

So the bottom line is that it's about the authority from the EO Church...

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IT???

AUTHORITY???

Iconography is the Sacred Art of the Orthodox Church...

It is consecrated by the Blessing of the Church...

because the other things you mentioned other artists have - such as blessing from God and people requesting the projects.

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The Blessing of the Church is a big deal, that's all...

The Body and the Blood are consecrated by the Church Blessing the bread and the wine...

If someone asks you to paint them an icon and you feel you have God's Blessing, by all means do so...

The way we bless our iconography differs from yours...

Did you watch the video "Iconography"?


Arsenios

Lämmchen said:

I did see the video!

The thing that stood out that is different is exactly what I said...it was about Your Church giving authority for him to become an iconographer and giving him the blessing. Learning about paints, brushes, etc...that's what all artists do.

So what it comes down to is exactly what I stated that it's not an icon unless YOUR CHURCH has done a blessing over the artist.

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Look -

IF you make an icon, it is an icon...

It is just not one of ours...

This is not difficult...


Arsenios