For many years now I have been studying the traditions of iconology, the sacred visual language which has developed in the Church. Long before becoming an icon carver, the pattern of my thinking had already been built through meditation on the images of both the Christian East and the medieval West. Although I am mostly […]
During Holy Week, the Orthodox faithful will see several icons in the center of the church being commemorated. Although we are used to interpret icons as stand alone objects, I have found that it is sometimes best to see the language of icons as an inter-connected web of elements which speak to each other across different icons types.
A TALE OF TRANSFORMATION Two New Mosaics for St George’s Orthodox Church, Houston, Texas Aidan Hart This is the story of how two large mosaics for St George’s Orthodox Church in Houston Texas came to completion this January. The genesis of a mosaic is a tale of transformation, from sand to glass, to image, […]
There are two basic images of Christ in the Church, each marking one of the two poles which hold the very limits of the cosmos. The first image is that of the Pantocrator and its derivatives, essentially Christ shown in the guise of a glorious emperor, both the origin and the final judge of the […]
One of the points I have been hammering at since I began writing for OAJ, is how symbolism is not just an arbitrary set of codes and meanings but is rather the very place where logos encounters the world, a coming together of different levels of reality. (See for ex, my article on the Recovery […]
One of the most surprising images one is faced with considering Orthodox liturgical symbolism is the bishop’s staff sporting two snakes flanking a small cross atop it. Especially in a Protestant North American context, this image seems to hark back to ancient chthonian cults, more a wizard’s magic staff than anything Christian. As I have […]
This is post 1 of 3 in the series “The Right and Left Hand in Iconography” This post is the first part of a series. Part two: St. Peter on the Right, St. Paul on the Left, Part Three: Authority on the Right, Power on the Left Anyone interested in iconography has certainly contemplated the wonderful 6thcentury […]