I was asked, in 2015, to design a set of liturgical furniture for Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Baltimore. When I looked at the building, I could see that this would be a complex project with several stylistic influences in play. The monumental structure was built by a Protestant congregation in 1888 in the ‘Richardsonian […]
This is post 1 of 2 in the series “The Altar and The Portico” THE ALTAR AND THE PORTICO (PT.1) The Relationship of Orthodox Iconography and Gallery Art Part 1 (This is the a talk given at Sacred And Secular In Life And Art, Oxford, a workshop dedicated to the memory of Philip Sherrard. St Gregory’s […]
This is post 2 of 2 in the series “The Question of Polychrome for Liturgical Woodcarving” In Part 1 of this article, I gave examples of historic Orthodox woodwork decorated with polychrome, and discussed the reasons why this can be effective. Specifically, I compared the visual impact of historic painted and gilded iconostases with modern […]
(This article continuation of my last post: Holy Tables with Reliquaries: A Short History ) The Ciborium A ciborium is a form of canopy supported by columns over the holy table (25). It is sometimes also called a baldachin, but strictly speaking this latter term should be limited to cloth canopies. Ciboria came to be common, […]
In this overview and the one that will follow I have combined the history of altars (also called holy tables), ciboria and tabernacles because their respective developments are somewhat related. In this first section I will deal with Holy Tables and will focus on ciboria and tabernacles in the second installment. My interest in […]
Founder of the Orthodox Arts Journal, church architect and craftsman Andrew Gould wrote the following concerning furniture in the Orthodox Church: The presence of furniture reveals the welcoming and comfortable aspect of the Kingdom of God. All is not judgment and fear in church. We are called to attend church as though we are coming […]
Iconographer, manuscript illuminator, and OAJ contributor Christabel Anderson will be teaching a fully booked eight-week course on the ancient art of gilding at the Prince’s School for the Traditional Arts in London beginning February 6. As a follow-up to this course, and the others she’s taught previously, Anderson will be conducting a five-day course at the […]
During the fall and winter of 2013, I had the marvelous opportunity to make and install a choros chandelier for St. Thomas the Apostle Orthodox Church in Waldorf, Maryland (a parish of the American Carpatho-Russian Diocese). The project was my second large articulated choros (the first, in South Carolina, was described in this article from […]
This is post 3 of 3 in the series “Hand and Machine” In light of the discussion that has been happening on the OAJ concerning the question of technical means and the production of liturgical arts (starting with fr. Silouan Justiniano’s article, my short post and Andrew Gould’s response), I thought I would attempt something […]
This is post 2 of 3 in the series “Hand and Machine” Yesterday, Jonathan Pageau posted an article in which he juxtaposed two videos – one of the carving of an icon by hand, and another of the carving an icon by a computer-controlled machine. Jonathan expressed an intuitive attraction to the one and dislike […]