The Icon Studio

Work has been going on apace, which probably accounts for the lack of updates since Christmas! February is normally a time of finishing off small commissions and ordering wood and boards. This year was no exception. Designs have been in process for a large icon crucifix for a church, while it has at last been possible for the woodworker to come and complete the boards for a pair of large icons for a church in Wales. Other commissions earmarked for this year include one of the saints of Anglo Saxon England, who baptised in the south and midlands area of the UK. At Easter 2012, the icon I have been doing for St. Mary’s Church in Beauly, will finally be unveiled.

In giving news of present work in the studio, I have to be very discreet, because obviously the client has not seen the finished icon, and may wish to unveil it on a particular date or give it to someone. They will not want pictures generally available on the internet beforehand, spoiling the surprise! However, as the parish have had the designs for this icon displayed in their church, I think I can give a preview- on the right! (Those of you who are signed up as Friends of eastXwest do occasionally get more of a peek in the house diary! – you can sign up at http://www.sanctiangeli.org/charity_angels.html )

   Much of my own work has been to go into modern churches which may have good architectural bones but lack that ‘bridging quality’ given by an interior decoration which inspires devotional prayer, readying the person in the pew to participate in the mystery. One of the first icons I made, in this context, was a large Our Lady of the Sign for the Bristol University Chaplaincy. The students raised a lot of money by themselves in a sponsored walk. The priest was very hesitant that the icon was ‘too alien’ culturally and would not go down well. However the result surprised him. We found that there, as in many other churches for which I have written (painted) icons, the young people responded very positively.

This is, I think, due to several factors. The icon is surprisingly modern visually. It has a strong abstract base, which means it easily fits into a modern architectural surrounding. At the same time it is not totally abstract. The person can relate devotionally to the image of a saint – an exemplar of the spiritual life. Icons are not portraits- they do not look you in the eye – their eyes are focussed on the presence of God. In a sense they ‘look through’ – as we have to learn to ‘look through’ to discern God in the eucharist. This makes the icon the sign of a fellow journeyer who has ‘made it’ – made the breakthrough to a new state of consciousness, another world – rather than an idol ( the protestant fear) or a rather empty plaster cast ( the 19c. statue).

Finally the icon complements scripture. Its content is based on scripture, corresponding to the teaching of the Gospels and Church – often directly based on interpretive texts by Church Fathers. They have implicitly the core of continuity of tradition which many young people are seeking for – dependable roots.

The icon of the Feodorovskaya was made for a private prayer room. The subject was chosen by the client from a later version of the icon. It had an important personal value as a memorial of his mother. The first job writing any icons is find out about it’s background and the earliest type, so as to be true to the original. The history of this icon is fascinating. It is the household icon of the Tzars – the Romanov family. Known as the Black Virgin of Russia, atrributed to St. Luke and overpainted several times, it was kept in the the wooden monastery Church of St. Theodore Stratilates near the town of Gorodets (now in the Nizhni Novgorod Region) in the twelfth century.  Miracles associated with the icon, linking it with apparitions of St. Theodore Stratelates comforted the people during the Mongol and Tatar invasions. For this reason, its primary title is the Saint Theodore, or “Feodorovskaya,” Icon.

The original icon does have many of the characteristics one comes to recognise among those attributed to St. Luke. It is primitive and creates a strong impression.  It can be difficult to understand this icon and its uncompromising strength. Over the years artists have tried to soften the features of this icon to make it more attractive, although this compromises the spiritual discipline of it’s strong beauty. This is actually quite a difficult balance to achieve, and the later version chosen by my client emphasised strength over beauty – I felt it was important to respect this choice, and focus on the strong matronly mother.

The first Romanov Tzar was sixteen when a delegation from Moscow asked him to accept the throne.  The Archbishop of Riazan’ took the Icon of the Feodorovskaya into his hands, and addressed eldress Martha (his mother)and Michael with the following words: “Why did the icons of the Most Holy Mistress travel with us on a long journey. If you will not listen to us, then for the sake of the Mother of God, be disposed towards mercy, and do not anger the Lord God.” The eldress Martha could not stand against such words. She fell to her knees before the Feodorovskaya Icon and said, Thy will be done, O Lady. I convey my son into thy hands. Set him on the path of truth, for the good both of himself and [our] native land! Thus, before this icon was chosen the first tsar of the house of the Romanovs.

Being now an icon associated with the royal throne and the protection of Russia, many copies were made of the icon, often set in an elaborate gold riza ( icon cover). The icon I was given as a model had elaborate gilding included painting garments in powdered and burnished gold, the beloved technique of the 17th and 18th centuries. I therefore used a mixture of stamped and powder gold painting to develop the rich quality.

The icon panels for St. Mary’s Forest Hall were woefully behind schedule, but we did manage to get them up in time for the Golden Jubilee celebrations- just! The 4 panel altarpiece for  Forest Hall was one of the most difficult projects I have ever undertaken. First mooted some years ago, and completed in two sections – the lower annunciation panels and the higher Assumption panels ( see previous blog for working photos) – the brief was to provide a liturgical focus on a bare wall absolutely dominated by huge wooden shutters either side of the altar.

The design aims to provide four large sections of gold leaf, instead of bare wall to counteract the shutters, with a movement of figures up the panels – starting with the angel of the annunciation, who points to the enthroned Mary, then moving across to Mary being assumed into heaven and finally the eye rests on the Lord in heaven, seated above a couple of seraphim ( red ). The design was quite difficult, because it involved relating the dynamism of the figures to each other over a central column, which is part of the supports of the building. For the angel I did a complete tonal drawing beforehand, because the end of the wings needed to be very dynamic. The panels will be completed by two roundels connecting the designs – a dove for the annunciation and a crown for the Assumption/Coronation. These will be above the central tabernacle. It is also desirable to put some filler strips over the links to finish off when the final roundels are placed.

For more information and pictures please visit http://forestmurmurs.blogspot.com

If one has quick look at  an Orthodox martyrology  ( the Menologion) it is surprising how often a biography begins along the lines of ‘St. Lazarus became a monk and learned iconography when he was still very young’ or ‘Our venerable Father Alipy of the Caves Monastery in Kiev … marvellously depicted the likenesses of the saints in icons ( and) was great doer of good works and a wondrous healer.’ Even more to the point, as far as the skete is concerned, is the life of St. Dionysius of Glushitsa. Dionysius received the blessing of his superior to live the hermit life  and built and painted his little wooden  monastery church by some bird cherry trees. The fact that he wrote icons did not prevent a community of monks gathering around him, and from this beginning the great Glushitsa Lavra developed.

As an iconographer called to religious life, I have meditated a lot on the western idea of both artist and hermit as a lone crank. These assumptions are not substantiated by the traditions of Orthodoxy, where monastic icon workshops and hermit life have both continued to flourish. We seem to have introduced a certain post-Renaissance dualism into our thinking about the arts, which I suspect has its roots in an under developed aspect of the theology of the Incarnation. If we really believe the Word was made flesh, with all that implies, then to write icons becomes, as it has in the east, an integral  part of theology and liturgy, a means of lectio divina, and an expression of contemplative prayer in the service of the koinonia (c0mmunity, coenobium). The hermit who writes icons then, as Peter Anson says of all hermits, ‘separate themselves from their fellow creatures in order that … they may be more fitted to serve mankind generally.’