tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post6111620258979502426..comments2024-02-11T03:50:53.613-05:00Comments on Counterlight's Peculiars: Christian Imagery; How Does It Work? Where Does It Come From?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-47431366291200881782009-08-19T16:54:17.425-04:002009-08-19T16:54:17.425-04:00The icon thing is a fad. It's been around for ...The icon thing is a fad. It's been around for a while, but it will gradually go away and put these marvelous works in perspective (no pun intended). They are captivating but foreign, I'd argue, to Anglicanism.<br /><br />100 years ago all the Episcopal churches had to look as though they came over on the Mayflower from England. That died out after WWII completely.<br /><br />Works of our time have yet to be appreciated.Davishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06167056789275283692noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-83424539472058929392009-08-18T14:27:34.569-04:002009-08-18T14:27:34.569-04:00"Ikons come from Egypt. They originally were ..."Ikons come from Egypt. They originally were quite profane portraits of living persons. Then these portraits ended up on the Mumie. A way for the mumie to see and be around the descendants."<br /><br />Indeed.<br /><br />More about that later.Counterlighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14345956180434795401noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-13661493343393635492009-08-18T14:02:00.637-04:002009-08-18T14:02:00.637-04:00And this, dear Kishnvi, is Neo Platonism at meltin...And this, dear Kishnvi, is Neo Platonism at melting point ;=) <br /><br />Ikons come from Egypt. They originally were quite profane portraits of living persons. Then these portraits ended up on the Mumie. A way for the mumie to see and be around the descendants.<br /><br />Then there is a story about a King at Edessa... An thence the Byzantine tradition.Göran Koch-Swahnehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00925549945659350649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-47753271123243898252009-08-17T22:37:28.503-04:002009-08-17T22:37:28.503-04:00I think the appeal of Byzantine icons lies in the ...I think the appeal of Byzantine icons lies in the theology behind them. The Western tradition of religious art treats them as illustrations of events or ideas, or else as some sort of active contemplation or meditation by the artist on the subject of the painting. The Eastern tradition sees it as a direct window into the holy: we can perceive the holy through it and even receive the holy through grace-- and the creation of an icon as a prayer to the subject of the icon. Rublev was not meditating on the Trinity; he was praying to the Trinity, and at the same time trying to create a channel by which we could pray with him and receive grace from the Trinity.kishnevihttp://kishnevi.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-24040341700114717682009-08-17T13:28:10.444-04:002009-08-17T13:28:10.444-04:00“…the role of imagery in Christianity is an issue ...“…the role of imagery in Christianity is an issue that has never been settled.”<br /><br />I think on the whole that’s true, but it should also be kept in mind, at least for Catholics and the Orthodox, that there is, in fact, a dogmatic pronouncement in favor of the use of images, from what both recognize as the seventh ecumenical council:<br /><br />“... we declare that we defend free from any innovations all the written and unwritten ecclesiastical traditions that have been entrusted to us. One of these is the production of representational art; this is quite in harmony with the history of the spread of the gospel, as it provides confirmation that the becoming man of the Word of God was real and not just imaginary, and as it brings us a similar benefit. For, things that mutually illustrate one another undoubtedly posses one another's message. ... we decree with full precision and care that, like the figure of the honoured and life-giving cross, the revered and holy images, whether painted or made of mosaic or of other suitable material, are to be exposed in the holy churches of God, on sacred instruments and vestments, on walls and panels, in houses and by public ways; these are the images of our Lord, God and saviour, Jesus Christ, and of our Lady without blemish, the holy God-bearer, and of the revered angels and of any of the saintly holy men. The more frequently they are seen in representational art, the more are those who see them drawn to remember and long for those who serve as models, and to pay these images the tribute of salutation and respectful veneration.”rick allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07612435616018593956noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2343439372519556254.post-60415747316217259982009-08-17T13:02:34.437-04:002009-08-17T13:02:34.437-04:00I think that for those of us of a certain age--bab...I think that for those of us of a certain age--baby boomers—Byzantine style remains something of an exotic novelty. I attended college in the seventies, not an art major, and my Renaissance and Modern Art History class made no reference to Eastern iconography. John Julian Norwich, in the introduction to the first of his three-volume history of Byzantium, notes how even more off-the-map Byzantium was for his generation. He suggests it was an offshoot of Gibbons’ dismissive attitude toward the Later Roman Empire.<br /><br />There is also, aside from the (relative) novelty, the congruence of traditional Eastern iconography with certain conventionally modern ideas of what painting is supposed to be. I know it’s been half a century, but there was that time when “flatness” was a great virtue, a sign of a painting’s authenticity, its honesty about its surface—and icons do fit the bill. In contrast, the whole emphasis on pictorial accuracy, perspective and modeling in Renaisance/Baroque art was seen by some in the academy as essentially dishonest. It was a complete about-face from the standards of, say, Vasari.<br /><br />And there was, of course, some degree of boredom associated with the conventional. Religious art descends easily into kitsch, and kitsch in turn jaundices our view of its sources. Two years ago I attended an exhibit of Baroque Spanish Art at the Albuquerque Museum. My wife (an artist herself, and with graduate work in art history) described it as being depressingly like being surrounded by giant holy cards.rick allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07612435616018593956noreply@blogger.com