Ethiopian Carving

Since the post I wrote on Ethiopian art has attracted many comments, I thought I would share a few thoughts on Ethiopian carving. I had seen images of Ethiopian carving before my trip there and was looking forward to finding where they came from. It is in the city of Axum, where the fabled Ark of…

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The Amber Icons of Alexander Krylov

Alexander Krylov is a Russian master of amber.  For several years he worked with a few others to recreate the famous “amber room”, the gift of the Prussian king to Peter the Great in the 18th century.  It was known as “the eight wonder of the world”, but was looted by the Nazis during the…

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The Serpents of Orthodoxy

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…

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Russian Master Icon Carvers

Rashid and Inessa Azbuhanov are a Russian couple who are leading the rediscovery of icon carving in the Russian Church.  Their works grace the collections of Russian politicians from Gorbachev to Putin, European royal families and church authorities from the Russian Patriarch to the Pope of Rome. Their works are often large and highly detailed, like wooden lace as…

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Miniature Icons by Evgeny Baranov

Here are some of the most astounding miniature icons I have seen.  They are made by a Russian artisan named Evgeny Baranov who is also a very good goldsmith as you will see below.   These pictures were taken from his facebook page.  I have been trying to get a short interview with some more details, and…

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Carving New Materials

A few months ago I posted a piece introducing our readers to Branislav Derkovic, a Serbian carver of exceptional quality.  Branislav had asked me to send him some of the stone I use to carve icons, commonly called steatite.  This stone was traditionally used in Constantinople for carving small miniatures but also portable icons.  In exchange for the stone,…

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A Byzantine-Style Diskos and Asterisk

It is well known that the early Byzantine church used very large patens and loaves of bread in the Divine Liturgy. Surviving examples of patens from the 6th-century are frequently two feet or more in diameter, compared to the six inch diskos typical today. Interestingly, the Melkite church still uses larger patens, and I recently…

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Contemporary Georgian Art

There is a facebook page called “Contemporary Christian Art” but most people would not notice because it is all in Georgian script.  Although boasting hundreds of pictures of early art from all of Christendom, the most remarkable aspect to those of us who are not in Georgia is how it prominently features contemporary Georgian liturgical…

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Carving a Reliquary

There are certain Medieval forms which have always been with me, seeming to affect an almost hypnotic attraction.  The casket reliquary or “chasse” is one of these.  Shaped like a tomb, but also suggesting a basilica church, these reliquaries most probably originate in early insular (Gaelic/Celtic/Pictish/Saxon) art. Most of us know this shape primarily from…

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