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About Icons
The word “icon” derives from
the Greek word “εἰκών”
eikon meaning “likeness”, “image” or representation”. An
iconographer or icon painter is thus an artist who “paints
images”. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, icons hold a very
special place. They are not just stylized representations of
saints or events; they are endowed with mystical connection
to that which they depict. Always seeking to portray the
invisible realities of heaven, icons celebrate holiness in
lines and color, revealing the “dwelling of God within men”
(Revelation 21: 3).
According to
tradition, the first icon ever created came from the hand of
the Apostle and Evangelist Luke. From the very earliest
period of the Church’s history, icons of the Lord, the
Virgin, the Disciples, as well as other saints and martyrs,
were being painted and venerated. The ancient historian
Eusebius, writing in the fourth century, reported seeing “a
great many portraits of the Savior and Peter and Paul, which
have been preserved up to our time”.
The
patterns and techniques of the iconographer’s craft were
passed on from generation to generation from that very early
period of the Church’s history. Icons were never looked upon
as “original works of art”. Instead, each new generation of
iconographers meticulously followed the examples and
parameters established from earliest times.
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