Saint Nectarios of Aegina (1846–1920)
A saint’s icon can illustrate
the story of his life in detail. Our reporter Ekaterina STEPANOVA asked
the icon painter and teacher of St. Tikhon’s Orthodox University,
Svetlana VASYUTINA, how we can tell by a saint’s sacred image what his
occupation was and what he is famous for.
Notwithstanding Our Infirmities
The first question that an
icon painter is often asked is how one can draw a saint one has never
seen. When I graduated from the Surikov Institute of Art (Moscow), I was
also tortured by this question. In hagiography, we find descriptions of
many saints, for instance, a straight nose, a moustache, a black or a
long beard… But there can be so many variants of a ‘long beard,’ how
shall I understand what he really looked like? The answer is simple: it
is the saint himself who helps the icon painter to determine the
details. It is the only way. One is to read the hagiography, to pray to
this saint, and then the sacred image will turn out correctly. If an
icon painter paints an icon as a picture, trying to reflect a part of
himself, his own feelings, his vision of the saint, he will fail. I
remember when I was making a mosaic of Our Lady, it was not at once that
the sacred image was shaped out. They told me to leave it as it was.
But I could not stop until I suddenly felt that the image now was
exactly what Our Lady wanted it to be. I won’t hesitate to say that it
is the Holy Spirit who moves the icon painter. It is the Holy Spirit who
draws the lines, chooses the colors.
There arises a second
appropriate question. An icon painter is as sinful a man as any other,
how can he draw with the Holy Spirit? This hard question is most of all
acute for icon painters themselves. The only ‘way out of this situation’
is to fully realize one’s own passions, one’s numerous sins and one’s
unworthiness, and pray to God asking for His help. I pray thus, ‘O Lord,
you know I am unworthy. You know I can do nothing by myself. But I love
people, I love You, O Lord! You do want people to pray to You, don’t
You? Let me be your paintbrush. What do people care whether the
paintbrush is plastic or wooden, if it is crooked or broken? But through me people will be able to see Your sacred image.’
Maybe I shouldn’t have
disclosed the secrets of the icon painter’s inner life, but without this
it is impossible to understand how sacred images appear. They come out
in the very shape the saints want them to have. It happens not because
of the icon painter’s virtues, but notwithstanding his infirmities.
Three Pokers in Hand
An icon painter must see to
it that a person, seeing the icon, should understand what the saint is
famous for, what his life was like. It is a hard task. The colors, the
background, the clothes – all matter.
The icon painter’s task is
to concentrate all the information about the saint (and this can be
years or scores of years of ascetic life) in one little image that would
reflect, as a symbol, all his lifetime. Often, the saints in icons
would hold in their hands something they are celebrated for. For
example, St. Sergius of Radonezh founded a monastery, therefore, he is
drawn with the monastery on his palm. St. Great Martyr Panteleimon was a
healer, and he holds a box with medicines in the icon. St. Andrei
Rublyov is often portrayed with the Trinity Icon in his hands. Prelates
and Evangelists are depicted with the Gospel in their hands. Holy
Fathers often hold a rosary, like St. Seraphim of Sarov, or rolls with
holy maxims or prayers, like St. Siluan Athonitul. Martyrs would hold a
cross.
St. Prokopy of Ustug is
portrayed holding three pokers in his hands. I was surprised to see
this. I started reading his biography and found that St. Prokopy was
‘foolish in Christ,’ he would run about the town, rattling a poker in
the air, or maybe even hitting people’s heads with it, and denounce
people’s sins. Why three pokers? Icon painters told me that they draw
three pokers to exaggerate the situation – it appears there is such a
tradition! When I was working at the fresco with this saint in Optina
Pustyn’ monastery, I painted every poker with different colors: the
first one was green, the second one was red, and the third one was blue!
It
is known that St. Martyr Christophor who lived in Egypt in the III
century was very handsome. To flee temptations, he begged God to change
his appearance, to make him repulsive. God granted his request. In
icons, he is portrayed as having a dog’s head. I do not think he really
had a dog’s head, though God can do anything, it is just to show that
his appearance became ugly. They exaggerate this motive in icons in
order to emphasize the saint’s deed and to focus the attention of the
person praying before the icon.
The color in icons plays an
equally important role as the things mentioned above. Red belongs to
martyrs. Blue stands for wisdom. White symbolizes paradise and chastity.
Green is the color of the Venerable Fathers. Golden symbolizes
sanctity. A while ago, I was tortured by the question why it is golden.
Once I was standing at a church, looking at the iconostasis. Suddenly,
they turned off the electric lights, and only candles before the icons
were burning. The golden traces were shining, giving back the light. It
was as if not the candles but the halos were radiating light. I was
amazed; the light seemed not material, not as comes from a candle or a
lamp. The golden color shows the person painted in the icon was granted a
different kind of light.
Colors in Icons
Red
is the color of blood and sufferings, the color of Christ’s sacrifice.
Martyrs’ clothes in icons are painted red. Red are the wings of
archangels and seraphims who are close to God’s throne. Red is the color
of Resurrection, of life’s victory over death. Sometimes they would
even have red backgrounds symbolizing the triumph of eternal life.
White
is the symbol of Divine light. It is the color of chastity, simplicity,
paradise. In icons and frescos, saints and the righteous men usually
wear white clothes. Babies’ swaddles and angels are also white.
Blue
means the endlessness of the heaven, the symbol of eternal world. It
also symbolizes wisdom. Blue is supposed to be the color of Our Lady who
united in herself the earthly and the heavenly.
Green
is the color of nature, of life, grass, leaves, bloom, and youth. Earth
is painted green. The color would be present where life starts: in
Nativity scenes. The golden shine of mosaics and icons is the
magnificence of the Heavenly Kingdom and sanctity.
Purple
or crimson is a very meaningful color in the Byzantine culture. It is
the color of the King, the Sovereign, the Lord in Heaven, the emperor on
earth. This color can be seen in Our Lady’s clothes as she is the Queen
of Heaven.
Brown
is the color of bare earth, dust, anything temporary and perishable.
Mixed with the royal purple in Our Lady’s clothes, this color reminds us
of human nature, subject to death.
A color which is never used
in icon painting is grey. It is the mixture of black and white, evil and
goodness, and this is the color of uncertainty, emptiness and
non-existence.
Black
is the color of evil and death. In icon painting, this color is used to
paint caves, as symbols of a grave, and the hellhole. In some plots, it
can be the color of secrecy. Black clothes of monks who departed from
the usual life symbolize the rejection of worldly pleasures and habits –
death in one’s lifetime, in a sense.
Skies and Earth in Icons
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Where Does a Taxi in the Icon Come From?
In the background of a
saint’s icon they often paint the monastery, the forest, the cave where
the saint lived, or the place that he specially patronizes. The synaxis
of Kiev Pechersk saints is painted against the background of the Kiev
Pechersk Lavra; St. Maria of Egypt is painted against the
background of a desert; St. Blessed Ksenia – against St. Petersburg and
the church at Smolenskoe graveyard. There exists a well-known icon of
St. John of Shanghai in which one can see a pavement and a taxi. A
remarkable icon! Someone can get confused; but say, if many centuries
ago they could paint a desert, why can’t we paint a taxi now? We live in
a historical period of time, in San Francisco they have this kind of
pavement and yellow taxicabs can be seen around the city.
Such literary details
appeared in icons to make them more understandable. A while ago there
were lots of illiterate people who could ‘read’ the hagiography in a
condensed form in the icon. There started to appear icons with ‘brands,’
which means that around the saint’s sacred image there would be drawn
pictures illustrating the brightest episodes of his or her life. The
saint’s ascetic deeds, his martyrdom and death, all the story of his
life would be told in ‘pictures’ in one and the same icon. In the brands
to the image ‘The Synaxis of All the Saints who Shone in Russian Land,’
one can even see the Red Army men shooting new martyrs, these men
having no halos, of course.
Past and Future in Icons
Often an icon illustrates the events of
several days or even the whole lifetime of a saint. The icon ‘Kirik and
Ulita’ (XVII century) tells the story of mother and son in detail.
Holding up their hands in prayer, the martyrs call to Heaven where on
His golden throne amidst clouds sits Jesus Christ. On the left, among
arcs and columns (that means within buildings) one can see scenes of
their deeds, miracles and their deaths as martyrs. Thus the icon illustrates the past and the future.
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But if someone in an icon or
a fresco is painted without a halo it does not necessarily mean that he
is an ‘unfavorable personage.’ For instance, in Serbia and Greece there
is a tradition to paint frescos of church wardens, the philanthropists,
and the embellishers of the church or the monastery. The Saviour sits
on His throne, Our Lady and John the Baptist next to Him, and following
them in modern clothes are the church wardens, the princes, carrying
their gift to God – their prayers for their whole nation. In the icon
‘The Joy of All Who Sorrow,’ there are paupers, cripples, the sick, the
mourning ones surrounding Our Lady entreating Her for help and
intercession; however, they are all depicted without halos. And in the
icon ‘The Lord’s Entry into Jerusalem,’ they depict playing children who
are overwhelmed with joy, throwing up their clothes, pushing each
other, with their shoelaces undone, with their hair unkempt, the donkey
trotting over someone’s foot. It is done so as to make the spectator at
least emotionally respond to what he or she sees. Naturally, it is the
external, but through this there can appear the internal, the more
profound, the spiritual.
Translated by Olga Lissenkova
Edited by Yana Samuel
Source. http://www.pravmir.com/what%E2%80%99s-the-difference-between-an-icon-and-a-portrait/
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