Štěpánka Karlová
In recent years, we have encountered them more and more, also here. In shops selling devotional items, they have become quite common, although more often they are simply lacquered printed reproductions glued onto wood. Especially among contemplative Christians, they are gaining popularity. However, most people struggle with them, finding them "strange," which is certainly due to the fact that they are objects of Eastern Christians, so why bother with them at all? It's not "ours." I would like to briefly introduce the basics of iconography symbolism to the first readers and help clarify the differences between icons and Western images, which is a necessary prerequisite for understanding what an icon wants to convey. I hope to provide an impulse to the potential readers belonging to that majority, encouraging them to also find their way to icons.
The word icon comes from Greek and simply means "image." However, we would be mistaken if we understood this term in the same way that we have become accustomed to calling it in our Western environment. Since the Renaissance, Western painters have depicted earthly reality even when painting images with spiritual themes. For centuries, they sought realism in the portrayal of the human body, nature, perspective... They looked for models among living people, where physical beauty and aesthetics were crucial to them. This has taught us, who look at their works, to prefer the same. However, the statements of icons are primarily theological, and everything is subordinated to this criterion: from the spiritual demands on the iconographer to strict rules of depiction and traditional techniques, to the use of these images. It would be a devaluation of the icon if we regarded it, for example, as a decoration for the interior of a chapel or apartment. An icon is truly a "window to heaven" and is meant for dialogue, for prayer, for relationship.
The language of icons is the language of symbols. The iconographer should know it so that their statement does not deviate from the truths of faith. Likewise, it is essential for anyone praying with an icon to familiarize themselves with it in order to understand it well. The use of gold, colors, inverted perspective, light, the way faces and clothing are depicted, gestures, the fact that the icon is not signed, the absence of a frame, the technique... everything has its meaning and reason related to the spiritual world and can thus become a springboard for dialogue with God. Through all this, God speaks. An icon, if we understand it well, teaches us to develop within ourselves the service of prophets, which we were anointed to during baptism. It teaches us to see behind the material reality the spiritual reality and to connect both within ourselves. This path (just like any authentic path of prayer) is traversable in both directions. It trains us to glimpse the divine world beneath the surface of our world and to connect with it. At the same time, it causes that God's glory can dwell in our land (Ps. 85:10).
The Theotokos with Christ
Cut-out, tempera on wood, 164 × 56 cm,
legend in Old Slavonic, around 1350,
iconostasis in the monastery in Dečani, Serbia.
From the book ICONS, Gordana Babic,
published by Karmelitánské nakladatelství 1997
Let us now pause at the individual symbolic expressions. Let’s start with gold. In iconography, this is a very characteristic aspect and indeed one of the defining ones. The background of the icon and the nimbus (halos) are gilded with gold leaf. Gold also adorns the clothing of the Christ Child or the Risen One during the descent to hell, during the Dormition of the Theotokos, or on the heavenly throne among angelic powers, the stole of Christ in most of the depictions from his earthly life, the throne of God. Mary’s cloak (maphorion) is bordered with gold, and there are also three stars representing her perpetual virginity (before birth, during birth, after birth). The rarity of this metal, its brightness, similarity to the sun, and dissimilarity to the tempera colors used in iconography determine its symbolic significance: it means God's grace, God's light, divinity, essentially God Himself. For God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5), He is infinitely different from all creation. Thus, everything depicted in the icon is essentially immersed in God, it has not grown larger, has not fled, and has not been carried away by time, but endures eternally in God. A holy person or situation, lasting on earth only for a limited time, can thus also become my window through which I glimpse eternity. The circular nimbus of saints further emphasizes their connection with God (the circle signifies eternity). The nimbus of Christ is moreover cross-shaped, inscribed with letters (in Greek, literally "the one who is"), expressing God's name revealed to Moses (Ex 3:14). The golden assist (strands) on the garment of the Child Jesus in the icons of the Theotokos also highlights His divinity. For example, on the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, Christ's chiton is additionally adorned with golden "triune" ornaments (triangles, trefoils...), reminding that even as a human He remains one of the Trinity. The adornments of Mary’s cloak present her as a woman clothed with the sun (Rev 12:1), full of grace (Luke 1:28), the first and so far only person who has fully achieved deification (Christ is God from the beginning) and whose soul and body already rejoice fully in the connection with God.
The symbolism of colors could be extensively written about, so I will limit myself to just the basics. Purple, the color of royal dignity, is absolutely indispensable in iconography. It is the color of Christ's chiton and Mary’s cloak. In many icons of the Theotokos, it is tinted brown, which signifies the earth, humility, and corporeality (the contrasting color to blue). White symbolizes God's light and splendor (Christ at the Transfiguration), purity and innocence (the horse of St. George, etc.), happiness, and good. Black, on the other hand, is hostile to God, the color of ruin, death, and the underworld. However, it can also symbolize self-denial, a high degree of asceticism. Red signifies activity, blood, life, martyrdom. Blue is mysterious, leading to the sphere of transcendence; it is the color of water and the infinite sky, the color of desire for the absolute, purity, and truth. Green is the color of the cosmos, earthly life, growth, and hope, triumph over death. It is actually blue lightened with yellow, thus containing both colors within it. Various shades of hue also carry nuance of meaning (the blue to green often represents Christ’s cloak and the chiton of the Theotokos). Dark brown signifies penitence, renunciation of the world.
At first glance, the inverted perspective seems unnatural, thanks to which we see four walls of angular objects (buildings, books, altars). Faces, too, appear somewhat developed from the back. People in spatially arranged groups have their feet on the same plane; the donkey in the foreground on the icon of Christ's Entry into Jerusalem is even stepping higher than the people behind it, as if it were in the air. Lines perpendicular to the icon's surface do not converge at the horizon behind the icon, but in front of it, in the heart of the one looking at it. In an optical and meaningful way, the viewer is thus drawn inside, into the icon, becoming a part of it. Andrej Rublev brought this to fruition in his icon of the Old Testament Trinity by leaving an empty fourth place at the table for a person who is praying before the icon. Another message of inverted perspective lies in declaring the distinctness of the world in the icon from our own. Opposite laws apply there: what is supposed to converge, diverges; what is supposed to diminish, enlarges...; he who humbles himself will be exalted (Luke 14:11), the least can be greater than the greatest (Luke 7:28), etc. This otherness is so great and obvious that the icon does not need a frame. Perspective can, however, also follow meaning. In icons of the Nativity of the Lord, the Theotokos is often significantly larger than all the figures, emphasizing her unique significance in the history of salvation. The Child Jesus in the manger, on the other hand, is the smallest of all objects, even smaller than he should be as a baby, in order to express his kenosis, as He became man.
The Presentation of the Theotokos in the Temple
Tempera on wood, 87 × 68.5 cm,
legend in Greek, third quarter of the 14th century.
Ohrid, gallery of icons in the church of St. Clement, Macedonia.
From the book ICONS, Gordana Babic,
published by Karmelitánské nakladatelství 1997
The light of the icons also has its peculiarities and messages. For it is not light that is reflected. Everything on the icon is created and modeled by light. This is related to the technical process of painting. First, dark foundational colors are applied. Shapes are formed by gradually lightening them. The iconographer does not shade but rather illuminates. This process imitates creation (from the vague to the definite, from darkness to light), symbolizing our life with God. It too should be gradually illuminated by God's presence.
A vocabulary of gazes, gestures, and objects would be a very extensive matter. I will briefly present just a few examples. The gesture of supplication, intercession is very common. We encounter it in most icons of the Theotokos with Christ, especially in Odigitria (She who shows the Way), but also in others. Her right hand is slightly raised to Jesus. In younger types of icons (Eleusa, Our Mother of Perpetual Help), Jesus places His hand in the supplicating palm of Mary. The same gesture is seen with saints in a series of the deesis (intercession) iconostasis. The Theotokos Sign spreads both hands in prayer. Christ in her medallion seems to mimic his mother and with outstretched arms blesses. He actually blesses almost all icons, while in his other hand he usually holds a scroll, symbolizing the Word made flesh, and the Scripture that was fulfilled in Him. The sorrowful gaze of the Theotokos expresses pain and compassion for Christ's suffering. The falling sandal of the Child signifies alarm, human fear of suffering and death. The language of symbols can have multiple layers. The tree, the attribute of the middle angel (Christ) in the icon of the Trinity, may signify the oak at Mamre under which Abraham hosted his visitors. In connection with Christ, however, we also see the tree of life in paradise and the wood of Christ’s cross. Rublev’s Trinity speaks clearly through its overall composition, arranged in a circle (eternity). The inner contours of the two outer angels create a cup, analogous to the one in the middle on the table. In the small one, there is the head of the sacrificial animal, in the larger, the middle angel – Christ. The composition speaks through many icons of St. George as well. While the saint pierces the serpent's head with a spear, the serpent wraps its tail around the back leg of the horse, making it hard not to recall what the Lord said to the serpent in paradise about the offspring of the woman (Gen 3:15). St. George with his horse also teaches us what it means to be "lord in one’s own house," to subordinate one’s lower aspects (passions, instincts, emotions) to a reason enlightened by faith: the horse has its eyes (sometimes even an entire head) turned backwards, towards the rider, from whom it expects commands.
Through the richness of its language, icons lead us to a deeper understanding of the Scriptures, teaching us to perceive them in context, to think "synthetically." The main motif is often accompanied by references to further texts or truths of faith which a superficial viewer might never think to look for. It seems obvious to us when we see in the icon of the Nativity of the Lord the reclining Mary, the Child Jesus in the manger, St. Joseph, angels, and shepherds, as well as a star. The three magi fit in there as well. We have gotten used to the ox and donkey, but few know that they are a reference to the beginning of Isaiah’s prophecies (Isa 1:3). The midwives bathing Jesus and the devil disguised as a shepherd, sowing doubts in Joseph, refer to the Protoevangelium of James. Jesus' swaddling clothes remind of his later burial, while his exaggerated smallness echoes the parable of the mustard seed (Jesus embodies the Kingdom of God), the rising earth refers to the parable of the leaven that a woman mixes into three measures of flour (into the world). The darkness of the cave refers to another Isaiah prophecy about the people walking in darkness to whom light is to shine (Isa 9:1). The depiction of the star (one beam comes from heaven, splitting into three below) expresses the truth about one God in three persons. The thoughtful gaze of the Theotokos, fixed on Joseph or possibly on the midwives, speaks of her compassion for people in doubt and her readiness to help them with intercession. And so on.
In connection with everything that has been said above about colors, gold, light, and perspective, a colorful world of God opens up in front of a person, full of messages of love that is hard to reach the end of, yet can be conceived in a single glance. The entire wealth of love in a single gaze – these are actually the basic elements of contemplation. St. John of the Cross directly defined it as "a simple loving glance." There are certainly many paths to such a mode of prayer, and every Christian should find one that corresponds to their disposition. Icons are a way tested through the centuries, somewhat forgotten and rediscovered, a path of possibilities many did not expect, a way to reveal and understand more complex truths revealed by God, but also our own hearts. They are an invitation to a living relationship with God. Will we let ourselves be addressed by them?
Štěpánka provided the text of this article for www.pastorace.cz, where it has been published since the summer.
We thank the site administrator for the kind permission to also publish it in our magazine.
We also point interested parties to her own website: www.ikony-karlova.cz
