Written by Archim. Zinon (Theodore)
The icon does not depict, it manifests. It is the manifestation of Christ’s kingdom, the manifestation of the transformed, deified creature; of that transformed humanity itself, which Christ reveals to us in His Person. Therefore, the first church icons were icons of the Savior, who came down from heaven and became incarnate for our salvation; and of His mother. Later, they began to depict the apostles and martyrs, who also manifested through themselves the image of the Son of God. The quality of the icon is determined by how close it is to the First Image, how much it harmonizes with the spiritual reality it testifies to.
The importance of the icon was perfectly understood by Leonid Uspensky: “The icon is an image of the person in whom the elements of passion and the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit reside at the same time. Therefore, his flesh is depicted qualitatively differently compared to mortal human flesh. The image of the saint transformed by grace, sealed on the icon, is the very likeness of God, the image of God’s revelation, revelation and knowledge of the hidden.”
Our remarkable theologian Vl. N. Loski, although he was not an icon painter (but he knew the priest icon painter Grigory Krug and Leonid Uspensky), very faithfully called the icon “the beginning of face-to-face contemplation”. In the age to come, the faithful will see God face to face, the icon is only the beginning of this contemplation. Prince Yevgeny Trubetskoi says that we are not looking at the icon – the icon is looking at us. We must treat her as a supreme personage: it would be presumptuous to speak to her first, it is necessary to stand and wait patiently until she speaks to us.
The icon is born from the living experience of Heaven, from the Liturgy, therefore icon painting has always been seen as a church service. High moral requirements were imposed on icon painters, just as they were on clerics. The icon is the testimony of the Church about God’s incarnation: about the fact that God came into the world, became incarnate, united with man to such an extent that each of us can rise to God and address Him as a Father.
The icon painter, therefore, is a witness. And his icons will be convincing to those who face them to the extent that he himself has joined the world he wants to tell about. Can a person who does not belong to the Church testify about God? In order to bear witness to the Gospel Truth, I myself must be included in it, live in it; only then will this sermon through image and color – the holy fathers put the icon on par with the sermon – bear fruit in other hearts as well.
The Church preaches both by word and by image; that is why the icon is called a teacher. Prince Trubetskoi, mentioned above, beautifully defines the Russian icon as “Contemplation in dyes”. The icon is prayer incarnate. It is created in prayer and because of prayer, the driving force of which is the love for God, the aspiration for Him as perfect Beauty. Therefore, outside the Church, an icon in the true sense cannot exist. As one of the forms of preaching the Gospel, as the Church’s witness to the incarnation of God, it is an integral part of the divine service – as well as church singing, architecture, rites.
But nowadays, the icon does not take its rightful place in worship and the attitude towards it is not what it should be. It became a mere illustration of the celebrated event: for us it is not important what its shape is, therefore we honor every image, even a photographic one, as an icon. We have long ceased to see it as a theology in dyes, and we do not even suspect that it can distort the doctrine as well as the word: instead of testifying to the truth, it can seduce many.
The icon originates from the Eucharistic experience of the Church, it is an invariable and inseparable part of it, as well as from the level of church life in general. When this level was high – and ecclesiastical art was at its height; when ecclesiastical life weakened or times of decline occurred, then a crisis also occurred in ecclesiastical art. The icon often turned into a picture with a religious plot, and its veneration ceased to be Orthodox in its own sense. As a confirmation of what has been said, we can recall that in our churches many icons are depicted in contradiction to church canons and are prohibited by the Councils, in particular, the so-called “New Testament Trinity” and “Fatherland” icons. The Old Testament ban on depicting God was not abolished in the New Testament. We acquired the ability to represent God only after “the Word became flesh,” after He became visible and tangible. By His divine nature Christ is indescribable, but since in Him the divine and human natures are joined inseparably and inseparably in one Person, we picture the God-man Christ, Who came into the world for our salvation, and Who dwells in it until the end of the age. The Church speaks of the eternal birth of the Son from the Father, and on the icon “New Testament Trinity” we see the Son, incarnated in time, sitting next to the Father, who is “unspeakable, unsearchable, invisible, unattainable” (words from the prayer “Anaphora” in the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom). And the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove only over the Jordan River; at Pentecost He appears in the form of tongues of fire; and on Tabor – in the form of a cloud. Therefore, the dove is not the personal image of the Holy Spirit and we can depict it only on the “Baptism of the Lord” icon. The Centurion and the Great Councils of Moscow banned such images, but nevertheless we can meet them in almost every temple and in every church shop. Even in the Danilovsky Monastery, the icon “Fatherland” is painted on the iconostasis of the “Fathers of the Seven Ecumenical Councils” temple, and in this monastery almost all priests have a higher theological education! We can only marvel at how the personal and the human prevail over the conciliar opinion of the Church, which is the sole guardian and exponent of the Truth.
Icon painting is a congregational creativity, that is, creativity of the Church. The real creators of icons are the holy fathers. The iconographic canon (as well as the liturgy) took shape over centuries and acquired a finished form approximately in the twelfth century, in this form it has reached us.
The Church has always paid special attention to its art, strictly ensuring that it expresses its teachings. All deviations from it were removed by overthrow. Thus, at the Council of the Hundred, the issue of icon painting took a very important place. In particular, it is about the icon of the Holy Trinity.
There are four icons of the Holy Trinity. They are indicated in the order of blessing of these icons in our trebnik. These are: the appearance of God to Abraham in the images of three angels; the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles; Epiphany and Transfiguration. All other images of the Holy Trinity must be rejected as distorting church teaching. Uspensky’s mentioned book “Theology of the Icon” contains a chapter called “On the Road to Unity”, in which the icon of Pentecost is considered as an icon of the Church. Why can’t the Blessed Virgin Mary be depicted on this icon? And why does the icon of Pentecost cease to be an icon of the Church if the Mother of God is depicted on it; why does she become only an image of the Virgin surrounded by the apostles?
On the icon in question, we see the apostles in Zion’s Hill, who formed the first church community, the beginning of the Christian Church. It is pertinent to note here that an icon is not simply a representation of a specific historical event. On the icon dedicated to Pentecost, the apostle Paul is almost always depicted, although he was not present there; also the apostle Luke, who was not among the twelve. The head of the Church is Christ, therefore the center of the icon remains empty: as such, He cannot be replaced by anyone else.
Today, there is no established and expressed opinion of the Church regarding church art, even more so – control of the church authorities over it. And almost everything is accepted behind the temple fence. I have been asking myself a question for a long time, to which I still have not been able to find an answer: why even the pious and honorable representatives of the clergy, as well as not a few of the monks, do not pay due respect to the icon?
I completely understand people who wholeheartedly admit that they cannot understand the meaning and content of the canonical icon, but I cannot agree at all with those who reject it simply because they do not understand it. Many clerics believe that church icons are difficult for ordinary people to perceive, and therefore it is better to replace them with picturesque ones. But I am convinced that for the majority of people, for example, the stichirs, the irmos, and the very language of the service are no less incomprehensible, although it hardly occurs to anyone to simplify the service in accordance with spiritual ignorance. The mission of the Church is to raise people to the height of God-knowledge, not to lower the bar according to their level. Therefore, those who reject the original Orthodox icon call into question the orthodoxy of their own perception of worship and, in particular, of the Eucharist from which the icon originates.
How to become an icon painter?
When they come to me and show a desire to master the art of iconography, I tell them that nowadays it takes at least fifteen years, regardless of the level of artistic training. What’s more: if they have previous training in the field of secular art, even these are not enough.
And some – they stay for two or three months and leave; then you see that they even take orders; they start getting a lot of money and don’t show up again. But there are people who have been studying for years, and for them the material side of the matter is not the main thing, which is essential in our work. If the minister puts income first, what kind of minister is he? Likewise, an artist for whom money is the most important priority is no longer an artist. Indeed, few of the contemporary icon painters possess a serious spiritual training.
The young artist who decided to become an icon painter must live an active church life, participate in the sacraments of the Church, study theology as well as the Church Slavonic language. Of course, he must look at the ancient icons. Now there is such an opportunity. And the ancient icon painters had almost nothing at hand, everything was in their memory.
Creativity outside of the living tradition cannot exist, and in our country the living tradition of church art has been interrupted. Most of the old icons have been discovered recently. And that is why we now have to retrace the same path that the Russian icon painters took after the adoption of Christianity by Russia. Then Byzantine icons served as models for them, now for us – the entire ancient Russian heritage.
And what books should we read? I can’t give recommendations that apply to everyone. At the beginning of the 1980s, when I lived in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, I was brought Father Nikolay Afanasiev’s book “The Church of the Holy Spirit”. I leafed through it and put it away, thinking it wasn’t for me, but now I can’t imagine my job without it. Obviously, we have to mature for everything.
What is the point of thinking, for example, about hesychasm in icon painting only on the basis of the books I have read, if I myself live a different life?… The requirements for those entering icon painting schools should be the same as for those entering spiritual schools. And the status of the icon painter should be equal to the status of the priest. So, maybe something remarkable will appear in the future. And we are used to benefiting from everything immediately, without making any effort.
On the technique of Iconography
To create icons in the proper sense of the word, it is necessary to strictly follow the technology that they used in the past. A traditional background of the icon has always been the gold (or silver) coating. Since gold has always been an expensive metal, due to its lack they used simple but natural materials. In poor temples, especially in the north of Russia, all the backgrounds of the icons are painted with light colors. The word background is not Russian, icon painters call it “light”. Paints must be mineral, except for the simplest ones, for example, lead bleaches. The primer of the board is prepared from sturgeon clay – now this is quite unprofitable, but in the past icons were also expensive. I also prepare bezier myself, the paints are ground by my assistants. Starting with the board and ending with the linseed oil coating, I try to do everything myself, according to the recipes of the old masters. I try to paint on the primed board as they did in ancient times. There was no graphia (needle painting) then, Russian masters began to do it later. To paint an icon without making a detailed graphic drawing is more difficult, but to achieve a successful result it is better, because the icon painter stiffens and he does almost everything mechanically, without being able to make any changes or corrections. And when the drawing is made approximately, in the process of work it can be changed to acquire expressiveness of the image – after all, in the icon the most important thing is the image. The icon is intended for prayer, for prayer presence; it helps us to be reunited with God as a testimony of God’s incarnation. The views of the icon of the art critic and the praying man do not always coincide: the icon is not intended for aesthetic contemplation – it is a manifestation of narrow-mindedness to accept it only as a type of folk creativity, as a work of art.
Can we talk about the concept of “school” in icon painting? This concept is purely artistic, not ecclesiastical. In Ancient Russia there were no such contacts between people as exist now. They lived too isolated, even by the speech it was possible to determine where a person was from. For example, the Yaroslavians had one language, the Kostroma and Novgorodians another. Sometimes people did not leave their place of birth all their lives. They had specific ideas about beauty, specific local traditions. Therefore, they built the temples according to the ideas of beauty in their inhabited place. This is the difference between them. And the term “school” is conditional, it is intended for convenience in classification. No one set out to stand out from the others.
When Aristotle Fiorovanti was commissioned to build the main cathedral of the Kremlin, he was sent to Vladimir to examine the Assumption Council. He saw it and built a temple similar to it, but also completely different. It is the same with the icon painters – the guarantor says how he wants the temple to be painted, which of the famous examples it should resemble; the master looks and whatever remains in his memory he recreates. The result is both similar and unique.
For Beauty
God is perfect Beauty. Beauty does not yet reign in this world, although it entered it with the coming of the Son of God, with His incarnation. She followed Christ on the path of her crucifixion. Beauty is crucified in the world, therefore it is Crucified Beauty.
Eternal life will be realized on this earth, but it will be transformed and renewed by the Spirit of God; without sin – in contemplation of Beauty; in the presence of God; in communion with Him. To achieve this outside the Church is impossible: there are no two truths.
There is a collection of ascetic rules called “Kindness”. What do we mean by kindness? I have asked old monks and they have answered me differently: love of virtue; to the good; charity.
“Goodness” is a Slavic word and means Beauty as one of the names of God. The spiritual feat, the purification of oneself, the preparation to be a temple of God, a temple of the Holy Spirit – this is an art of arts, a science of sciences. Divine Beauty is above all the beauty of perfect spiritual Love; the writings of the holy fathers testify to this. In modern language, God took a risk in creating man. In some eternal perspective, the fate of the world and, of course, of each of us individually, were known to Him, but nevertheless the meaning of His actions is that He reveals to us perfect love. Creating man, believing in him, He knew that the atoning sacrifice of Christ would be necessary.
“Beauty will save the world” – said Dostoevsky, because man alone cannot save it. Beauty is an abstract concept: one’s criteria are the same; to another – others. But I think that Dostoevsky had in mind the concept of beauty as one of God’s names or as a manifestation of God-likeness. We also call God the Artist, since one of the ascetic exercises is the contemplation of the visible creation. If this world, even stricken and damaged by human sin, is so beautiful, so organic, how wonderful is its Creator! In the broad sense of the word, every Christian is called to be an artist. The gift of creativity distinguishes man from all other living beings, placing him even above the angels.
Now, many educated people, who did not find Truth and Beauty in the streets of life, come to the Church and look for this Beauty in it. They very subtly sense every falsehood, every ugliness and distortion, especially artists and musicians. And if they see poorly painted frescoes in the temple, hear fake concert singing instead of the simple statutory singing – no one could convince them that Christians are witnesses of Heavenly Beauty. Many may be put off by the unworthy behavior of the priest during the service, by his inappropriate manners, by his neglected appearance, even by his unclean shoes. In our country, it is accepted for everything to be guided by the elders: will they accept it or not. I am convinced that beauty will not turn away any old woman, and because of our carelessness we can turn away the frail and wavering from the temple forever.
Nowadays, when we talk about church revival, first of all it is necessary to take care that the Church reveals that Beauty that she possesses in fullness – this is her mission in the world. L. A. Ouspensky in his book “Theology of the Icon” correctly notes that “if during the period of iconoclasm, the Church fought for the icon, today it fights for itself.”
The abundance of all kinds of information in the modern world absorbs us so much that it causes an indifferent, frivolous attitude towards the word – both oral and printed. That is why the icon’s voice remains the most powerful, the most convincing today. Few today trust the word, and silent preaching can bear more fruit. The way of life of the priest, of every Christian; church singing and temple architecture should bear the seal of Heavenly Beauty.
Speaking of the silent sermon, I cannot but mention Archimandrite Seraphim (Tyapochkin) from the village of Rakitnoe. I met Father Seraphim even before I entered the monastery. After that, already being a monk, I visited him for seven years. I didn’t ask him about anything, I just watched him. He was a remarkable man! Not once did I hear him judge or look down on anyone, even though he met all kinds of people and went through a lot in his life. All kinds of people came to him, and he received them all with equal love.
The Apostle Paul says that to the pure everything is pure, and if a person finds only faults in others, this exposes him to his own impurity.
Father Seraphim spent fourteen years in a camp, in the harshest conditions. He was sentenced to ten, but when the term of the sentence expired, he was called by the head of the camp and asked: “What do you intend to do?” – “I,” he said, “am a priest and I intend to serve.” – “If you are going to serve, then stay longer.” And added more. Only after Stalin’s death, in fifty-five, he was released. Many were broken by these camps, only the spiritually strong people, whose faith was true, endured. They didn’t get angry, and in that scary environment you could very easily get angry.
Recalling Father Seraphim, I say that the best form of preaching these days is the life of a person who embodied the ideal of the Gospel.
For Christ
Many do not perceive as a miracle the incarnation of God in the image of a man, but it is a miracle.
To the Jews it seemed blasphemous to say that God was born of a Virgin: God, before Whom even the angels tremble, Whom even they cannot see, suddenly appeared in the form of a man; that’s not enough, he is also born of a Virgo. And for the pagans, it was unthinkable that God would suffer: for them it was madness – supposedly God is all-powerful, but he suffers!
Christ is the Lamb slain from of old for the sins of the world. He suffers in every person. In Abel slain by Cain; in Isaac prepared for the sacrifice; in Moses thrown and picked up by Pharaoh’s daughter; in Joseph sold into slavery in Egypt; in the prophets, the persecuted and the slain; in the witnesses and martyrs.
Rarely do people openly rebel against God – more often they express their protest by persecuting the prophets, apostles and saints who, bearing the righteousness of God, terribly anger those who do not accept the Lord, His Light, Truth and Beauty. They pour out their wrath on the saints, rejecting their word and slandering them as not being of God.
By persecuting and killing prophets, apostles, and saints, people fight against God. That is why the Body of Christ is always broken, always before us… The Redemption once made by the Son of God continues.
Source: From Archimandrite Zinon’s book “Discourses of the Icon Painter”. The author is the most famous Russian icon painter today, who had a huge impact on the development of Russian icon painting as early as the 80s of the 20th century. In addition to being a painter, he also deals with icon theology. Awarded the State Prize of Russia for his contribution to Orthodox fine art.
Photo: The “Old Testament Holy Trinity” icon is a work of Father Zinon
