The Art of Iconography
By Photios Kontoglou
By Photios Kontoglou
The all-honorable art of Iconography of the Eastern Orthodox Church is a sacred and liturgical art, just as all ecclesiastical arts are, for they have a spiritual purpose. These holy arts do not aim merely to adorn the church with painting to make it pleasing and delightful to the worshippers, or to delight their hearing with music, but to lift them into the mystical world of faith through a spiritual ladder, which has gradations, that is, steps: the sacred arts, hymnography, psalmody, architecture, iconography, and the other arts, all cooperating together, so that the mystical Paradise, fragrant with spiritual perfume, may be formed within the souls of the faithful. Therefore, the works of the ecclesiastical arts of the Eastern Church are reminders of the divine word.
The art of Icons in the Orthodox Church is called Hagiography, as it paints holy persons and sacred subjects. The iconographer is not simply an artisan who makes a representational painting on religious themes, but possesses spiritual rank and a spiritual ministry, which he performs within the church, as does the priest and the preacher.
The liturgical Icon has a theological meaning. It is not, as we said, a painting made to please our eyes, or even merely to remind us of the holy persons, as is the case with images we keep to recall our beloved relatives and friends. Rather, it is painted in such a way as to lift us from this perishable world and allow us to perceive the new atmosphere of the Kingdom of God. Therefore, it bears no resemblance to paintings that portray persons materially, even saints, as occurs in the religious art of the West. In the liturgical icon, the holy figures are depicted in incorruption.
For this reason, liturgical art does not change along with other human things, but remains unmovable, like the Church of Christ, which it expresses. Sacred tradition is the fiery pillar that guides it through the desert of the unstable world. This surprises people of this age, who are unable to penetrate the depths of the spiritual sea, but swim only on the surface of the senses, carried away by currents and whirlpools.
Liturgical art nourishes the faithful with spiritual visions and sounds, sifting what enters through the gates of the senses, illuminating the soul with heavenly wine, and granting to it the peace of the mind.
The present book is technical and illustrative, and the reader might think it is unrelated to theology. But let him understand that in the Eastern Church everything is spiritual. Thus, even in the art of hagiography, the coarse tools, the colors, the walls, the boards, and all material things are sanctified by the grace of the Holy Spirit, becoming instruments of holy art.
The technical knowledge of this art is not merely mechanical work, but partakes of the spirituality and holiness of the things it seeks to depict. Therefore, even the technical terminology of hagiography — the names of the tools and the description of each item in it — has a religious character. The materials used by the iconographer are blessed, humble, fragrant, and delicate. Thus, to make the coals with which he designs, he uses seasoned, dry linden or myrtle wood. To make the board on which he will paint the icon, he uses cypress, walnut, chestnut, pine, or another fragrant tree. The pigments are mostly earths of the land, which emit fragrance when wetted, especially for wall painting, and they smell as the mountains after first rains or like a fresh jug of cool water. The artisan puts a little vinegar in the egg to preserve it. The varnishes smell like incense, and one who venerates the icon perceives a spiritual fragrance. The materials of the icon are the pigments (mostly earth), egg with vinegar, wax, pine resin, fragrant sandarac, mastic, honey, and almond gum. In short, this sacred art does not employ coarse and sticky materials as secular painting does, which uses linseed oil, heavy pigments, and thick brushes.
Regarding the terminology of hagiographic art, it is as if one is reading a synaxarion or another religious book when reading a technical manual on this art. Thus one reads terms such as: vials of the church, solemn coloration, polishing, on linens, on linen-colored paints, on burning, on preliminary layers, on flesh tones, on lammas, on cinnabar, interpretation of measures, history, painting walls, on gilding, on linen preparation, how to make a paint glossy, put in a container powdered chalk with care, pure vinegar, wonderful pigment, holy wax, preliminary layering, lamination, slaking lime, let the lime cool, apply the surface, on eyes and eyebrows, on sweetening, on varnishing, clean with a rabbit-foot brush, gold pencil and gilding, put in the funnel, season the paint, eyelashes, before the eyes, etc.
Speaking of technical matters, iconographers often use religious and theological words, for example: “paint the gypsum not only with white but with a little ochre, so that it may be humble and devout,” or “the paints should have such sweetness and piety,” etc.
Beauty in liturgical painting is spiritual, not fleshly. This art is ascetic and simple, expressing richness through poverty, and just as the Gospel and the Old Testament are concise and succinct, so Orthodox iconography is simple, without superfluous ornamentation and vain display.
The old iconographers fasted while working, and when they began an icon, they changed their undergarments to be pure inside and out, and worked while chanting, so that their work would be done with reverence and their mind would not be distracted by worldly things.
For this reason, the particularly liturgical and devout icons seem ugly to those with the spirit of this world; to them, the faces have neither “form nor beauty,” as “the mind of the flesh is enmity against God” (Rom. 8:7). “The flesh desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh” (Gal. 5:17). In the holy icons, “the flesh is crucified with its passions and desires.” Their spiritual beauty is “good transformation,” as Saint Symeon the New Theologian said when he looked upon the ascetic faces of his spiritual children during the Fast of Great Lent.
The Mystical Gate, the Eastern one, is and will remain closed to those who occupy themselves with carnal knowledge, which “puffs up,” that is, makes man proud, according to the Apostle Paul. While, “the eyes of the Lord are upon the humble, to cheer them.”
As much reverence, humility, and faith as the iconographers who created the venerable and holy icons possessed, we must have in equal measure when venerating them, so that we may be worthy of the mystical grace flowing from them, according to the words of Saint Gregory the Wonderworker, who says: “Both prophets and those who hear the prophets require the same power; and even if one does not listen to the prophet, the Spirit has granted him understanding of his words.”
Source: From his book EXPRESSION OF ORTHODOX ICONOGRAPHY, Volume 2, published by the publishing house ASTIR. 2nd edition, Athens, 1960. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.