On The Origin of Ὁ ὬΝ in The Halo of Christ
We are so used to seeing the features of Christ in icons that we no longer pay attention to them, thinking they have always been there, as we see them, taking them for granted. We have perhaps forgotten that behind each feature there is a history and a theological meaning to discover and rediscover. So…
Continue reading »Between Discipline and Joy: An Interview with Vladimir Gorbik
Interviewed by Natalia Gorenok Translated by Vladimir Morosan The art of Church singing as an integral part of the life of the Church, like the Church itself [in Russia], is experiencing a period of revival. Along the way, there are still many difficulties, because many of the traditional practices among choirmasters and church singers were…
Continue reading »Interview with Daniel Neculae
(Editor’s note: A few years ago we introduced our readers to the luscious work of Daniel Neculae, a Romanian iconographer now living in Luxembourg. Last year Daniel gave his first workshop in the US which was attended Marek Czarnecki, veteran American iconographer and teacher himself who agreed to conduct and edit this interview for us.)…
Continue reading »Contemporary Iconographers of Russia
From December 11, 2015 to January, 19, 2016 (Moscow, Russia) “Tsar’s Tower” exhibition hall, in Kazansky railway station, hosted a large-scale exhibition entitled “Contemporary Iconographers of Russia”. The exhibit featured sixty iconographers, masters of mosaic and gold embroidery, jewelers as well as architects from Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Vladimir, Archangelsk and other Russian cities. The exhibit showcased an…
Continue reading »Sacred Space, Sacred Art and The Power of Women
We live in a confused time. Many of the basic foundations which hold the world together have been made fragile. Up/down, center/periphery, inside/outside have all been eroded in their power to frame existence as we watch floodwaters rise around us. One of the foundations systematically attacked through sophisticated rhetoric and political ideology is the complementary…
Continue reading »Today and Tomorrow: Principles in the Training of Future Iconographers pt.2
This is post 2 of 2 in the series “Today and Tomorrow: Principles in the Training of Future Iconographers” Aidan Hart looks at principles of style, composition and fabrication in icons, how these are meaningful in our consideration of iconography and how such considerations should be transmitted to the next generation of artists. Today and…
Continue reading »Today and Tomorrow: Principles in the Training of Future Iconographers pt.1
This is post 1 of 2 in the series “Today and Tomorrow: Principles in the Training of Future Iconographers” Aidan Hart looks at principles of style, composition and fabrication in icons, how these are meaningful in our consideration of iconography and how such considerations should be transmitted to the next generation of artists. Today and…
Continue reading »A Matter of “Ethos”: An Interview with the Painter Markos Kampanis
We often forget that our contemporary art, although the offspring of the 20th century revolutionary avant-garde, has its own set of artistic dogmas, its form of “orthodoxy”, so to speak. Ironically, although the avant-garde might have shattered the stifling shackles of the Academy, it has now itself become another form of restrictive academy, forming an…
Continue reading »On the Gift of Art…Part V: The Threshold
This is post 5 of 5 in the series “On the Gift of Art… But, What Art” Fr. Silouan explores points of contact and departure between traditional visions of art and contemporary art as we know it today. On the Gift of Art… But, What Art? On the Gift of Art…Part II: The Traditional Doctrine…
Continue reading »The Icon Painting Tradition and Modern Art: Hermeneutical Considerations
To articulate what is past does not mean to recognize ‘how it really was’. It means to take control of a memory, as it flashes in a moment of danger. Walter Benjamin In 1557, the Corpus Historiae Byzantinae, a series initiated by the German monk and humanist Hieronymus Wolf[1], was published. Ever since, the region…
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