Orthodox Church art

Discussion in 'Non-Anglican Discussion' started by Moses, Jan 22, 2021.

  1. Moses

    Moses Member

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    Since Orthodox iconography has come up in several threads recently, I thought it might be helpful to show and explain some examples of it. Since most people are probably a lot more familiar with post-schism Roman Catholic church art, I will begin with some differences.

    Orthodox Church art is highly stylized, rather than photorealistic, because it depicts heavenly things that right now we see only “as through a glass, darkly.” Usually our paintings of heavenly things have a rectangle shape intentionally reminiscent of a window, as a further reminder that we are looking on from earth. We depict God as he has revealed himself to us, which means that you will not a Zeus-like painting of God the Father in an Orthodox Church.

    God the son is depicted as a man, because of his incarnation:

    [​IMG]

    God the Holy Ghost is depicted as either a dove or tongues of flame, since this is how he chose to appear to us in the scriptures. For example, this Pentecost icon:
    [​IMG]

    I will add more later. If anyone wants to post an icon they have questions about, I am happy to answer to the best of my abilities.