ABOUT ICONS

From iconographer Jenny Hainsworth's lecture in the Sessions on Spirituality series at the University of Victoria, Victoria, BC.

Icons: Theology in Paint and Gold

Contrary to popular, non-Orthodox belief, icons are not Art, and so are not to be judged by the conventional rules of artistic expression. While never overtly stated, this assumption underscored and informed Jenny Hainsworth’s address to the University of Victoria on March 20.

Invited by the Chaplains office, the Sessions in Spirituality workshops were chaired by United Church chaplain Henry Lock. The audience included undergraduate and graduate students, members of both Orthodox and non-Orthodox local churches and faculty members.

Jenny is an iconographer, and gave a brief overview of her journey into writing icons, from her early days as a new convert at St. Herman of Alaska, where she doubted, because of its confining and restrictive techniques, that she’d ever take up the discipline. Her moment of epiphany, she said, came in Scotland, where an interest in calligraphy led her to a class for icon writing, where she encountered a master who encouraged her to continue learning the craft.

She pointed out that while icon making might be bound with rules and restrictions an iconographer (literally “image writer” in Greek) is not restricted only to painting icons. They can and sometimes do find personal expression in other forms of art, which they pursue concurrently with their icon work. Additionally, iconographers exhibit a particular style within the limits imposed by the discipline. Experts in the field, she said, can often identify a particular painter’s work, even though traditionally icons are not signed.

The reason for the rules governing the writing of icons is because of their purpose. In the Quinisext council of 692, iconographic rules and styles were agreed to and set down, so that icons would “reveal and proclaim doctrine in an Orthodox context,” Jenny said. Further, she maintained, they are integral to Orthodox worship. As such, they must communicate the truths of the faith, whether it’s illuminating the doctrine of Transfiguration, as seen in Saint’s icons, or the doctrine of the Incarnation, as depicted by the numerous styles of the icons of Jesus. In addition, she pointed out, the iconography reflects and amplifies the hymnography, and vice versa.

Jenny touched on the style of the Orthodox painting as compared to the religious art of the Western church, and declared that, again contrary to conventional wisdom, iconographers have always understood the rules of perspective and proportion. It was a deliberate decision to forgo the illusion of three-dimensionality in a two dimensional medium in favour of retaining the duality of both the physical and spiritual realities.

In spite of its rigid and demanding discipline, Orthodox iconography is taught and passed along in a very organic manner. Iconographers teach each other, and the first writer of a newly proclaimed saint will likely have known the saint during their lifetime. It is not unusual, Jenny noted, for an Orthodox person to enter a church and be able to identify individual saints by their particular likenesses, regardless of the overall similarity of treatment.

She also pointed out that, contrary to popular belief, Orthodox faithful do not worship the icons. Jenny likened an icon to a photograph of a loved one, which one might talk to or touch or kiss, in token of a husband, wife or dear friend who is not present in the flesh. Just as we don’t mistake the photograph for the person, neither do the Orthodox mistake the image of the Saint for the Saint’s being.

The session included an explanation of how an icon is written, or painted. The images are painted on wood – usually, in North America, on bass wood because its close grain prevents cracking and warping with age. The wood is cut and sanded, then covered with numerous layers of gesso (chalk, rabbitskin glue and sometimes marble dust), each of which is sanded between coats. The paints are egg tempera, made by mixing egg yolk and water, and then adding a dry mineral pigment. The image is then drawn and painted, slowly and with great care and reverence. Gold leaf is applied carefully, often with an undercoat of a special clay called bole, to give it an interesting three dimensionality, and is highly burnished.

Jenny ended her discussion with an invitation to look at the icons she had brought with her – both real, and reproductions in several books. Many of her listeners took advantage of her offer, and paged through the books and handled the icons that were present.

Icons may not be Art. But in many respects, they share the purpose of all art: they elevate, enlighten and challenge the observer. In seeing Orthodox icons, really taking them in, and experiencing their reality, one does not come away unchanged. As one audience member put it, “They are a tool to enter into Holiness.” As such, they fulfill all the functions that can be asked of Art.