Ikonographics Blog
Step-By-Step Tutorials and More…
Painting St Maria of Paris (With Interventions from the Saint Herself)
Painting St Porphyrios (On Emotional Manipulation and Black Garments
Painting St Sophrony and the Difficulties of Painting Contemporary Saints
Revisiting the Patristic Theology of the Icon. Part 2: The Modern Theology of the Icon: Is it Orthodox?
Although Ouspensky and Kontoglou are often credited with the modern revival of traditional iconography and the Byzantine/Russian painting style, the “rediscovery” of the icon did not actually have its beginnings in the Church, but in the rise of nationalism and Romanticism in late 19th century Russia and the revolution taking place in Western art with the birth of Modern art.
Revisiting the Patristic Theology of the Icon. Part 1: Setting Aside our Western Assumptions
One of the biggest hurdles we have to overcome if we want to understand the icon is our Western understanding of what an image is and how it functions and how this differs from the Byzantine understanding. And if we want to understand the icon for what it really is we need to set aside our Western assumptions and romantic notions and start thinking realistically, because that is how, as we will see, the Fathers understand the icon. This Byzantine realism is not to be confused with naturalism and what Western art historians refer to as realism (just as the abstraction in Byzantine art should not be confused with that in Modern Art).