A few words on the technique of iconography...
An Icon is not just a painting with a religious meaning but rather a sacred image, which ascends to the Archetype; it is a window into a different, spiritual world.
The technique of writing an icon (icons are “written” not painted)
originated from ancient times and must follow strict guidelines and
requirements referred to as cannons. Along with writing the icon there are
preparatory stages such as preparation of the wooden board, paints, the
techniques of writing the icon and the fact that the icon must be similar if
not identical to the icon samples from which one creates a new image
Traditionally, icons are written on a well-dried wooden board, which is
prepared using a special method. First, several layers of glue are applied on
the board, and then the canvas is glued on top of the board. The most common
type of canvas attached is made out of linen cloth and serves as a joining
agent between the gesso and the surface.
The next step is the application of the gesso. Gesso is a white paint
mixture consisting of a binder mixed with chalk, glue, and oil varnish.
Sometimes instead of the oil, varnish honey is added. The gesso is applied
which about 5-6 layers. It is important to have the surface fully dried after
the application of each additional layer. Afterwards the surface needs to be
polished and the areas where the gold leaf is to be applied must be extra
smooth.
Once the board is ready, the drawing can be outlined on it. In most cases,
iconographers use thin paper on which the image is already depicted to trace it
unto the board. The more experienced iconographers will paint directly on the
gesso.
After the image has been drawn on the wooden board, the gold leaf is
applied unto the icon which by now is covered with either water or oil varnish.
This step requires diligence and attention to detail. Usually the gold leaf is
applied to the halo and the background of the icon.
Icons are not written with standard paints and iconographers must prepare
the paints themselves. The paints consist of pigments - well ground minerals
and a binding agent in the form of egg yolk. This mixture is combined with a
liquid mixture using a 1:4 ration. The liquid mixture is usually beer of water
with vinegar. The result must resemble a more liquid form of sour cream.
The colors are applied with a thin layer as the space on the icon must
be able to “breathe”. Both large and small round paintbrushes are used in the
process. Because every color has is significant in its symbolic meaning it is
important for the colors to be clear and easy to identify.
The first aspects of the icon that are written includes clothing,
buildings and background architecture as well as landscapes and everything
else with the exception of the faces, hands and feet on the image. The
technique requires a gradual brightening of the image, usually in about three
steps. Each crease on the clothing of saints as well as the brightened colors
imply transfiguration and immateriality of the fabric. The clothing symbolizes
the good deeds of the saints and the return to God’s grace from sin.
The next step involves writing the faces, hands and feet on the image
and is similar to the previous step but will require more layers and time. Finally,
the image need to be drawn-through with cinnabar (red paint) and whitened to improve
the sharpness and clarity of the image.
Assist is applied towards the end of the icon painting process. Assist
is a thin golden drawing that is found on the clothing of Christ, Mother of
God, and some of the saints, which signifies the Divinity in their essence.
Inscriptions and outlines are also very important in the creation of
the icon. These two aspects are the final pieces to the puzzle. Only after the
inscription is added to the image can it be referred to as an icon.
Then the icon need to be covered with oil varnish and polish. It is a
very important step in the process and the icon needs to have fully dried by
the time this part begins. Finally, the last step is the blessing of the icon.
It is best to keep an icon in a wooden case (kiot) covered with glass. This
will guarantee protection from various outside and environmental factors such
as dust, smoke, humidity and temperature changes that can in one way or another
damage the sacred image.
Article written by
Daria Chechko
Icons from the Icon Painting Studio of St.Elisabeth Convent |
Meeting of Vladimir icon of the Mother of God
Meeting of Vladimir icon of the Mother of God |
In 1395 Tamerlane and his Tatar forces entered the
Russian land and moved against Moscow, with forces possessing incomparable
power and experience and outnumbering the Russian armies by several times.
Moscow's only remaining hope rested in fortune and God's help. Thus, Great
Prince Vasily Dimitrievitch of Moscow sent to Vladimir for the Miraculous Icon.
Over the course of the Vladimir Icon's ten-day journey from Vladimir to Moscow, people stood on their knees along the road and
implored "O Mother of God, save the Russian land."
Preview the icons of St.Elisabeth Convent |
The Icon was welcomed into Moscow on August 26, "and the entire city came before the Icon to greet it.…" At the time of the meeting, Tamerlane was asleep in his tent. It is said that in a dream at that moment, he saw a high hill, from which there descended toward him holy hierarchs with golden staffs. Above them was a "radiant Woman," standing in the air, radiating bright rays of light, and surrounded by a host of angels, countless in number, armed with swords. In the morning Tamerlane summoned his wise men. "You won't be able to handle them, O Tamerlane, for it is the Mother of God who intercedes for the Russians," said a seer to the undefeated Khan. "And Tamerlane ran, pursued by the power of the Most-holy Virgin…."
Two interviews about the creation of the Mystical Supper CD: How the English language got united with the language of angels.
Who can sing in English in our Convent? What is special about liturgical music in English? I asked some of the people who took part in the recording of Mystical Supper — the first CD album of the chants of the Divine Liturgy in English — to shed light on these issues.
Part One. An interview with Nun Maria. on the English Language and the Language of the Liturgy
Nun Maria, what does the Liturgy mean to you?
Liturgy is life. We are renewed by the Liturgy and we are revived through communion. When we take communion, all our divisions and strifes cease, the walls between us and God and between us and other people fall into pieces. The Blood of Christ renews us, and we all become one.
The Mystical Supper CD album is a recording of the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom. St John said some very beautiful words about the Liturgy, "There isn't anything that exalts one's soul, gives it wings, lets it soar above the ground, releases it from dark chains, delivers a philosophy, or helps to achieve total contempt for earthly cares better than harmonious singing and guidance by the text of the Divine chants."
Yes, the value of choir singing lies in catholicity, in unity. Where there is unity, there is God. Of course, technically you can sing the Liturgy alone, on your own, but this is hard to compare. The sound of a choir, when people sing together and try to tune in to each other, is much better. It can be difficult at times because we all are different and each one of us is in a different spiritual state. However, we should exert ourselves to "synchronise" with each other, to seize that unity. It makes us closer to God and to each other. Unity with God and with each other is the purpose of the Liturgy.
Could you please tell about those who directly participated in the project?
The singers who took part in this project had not come from a certain choir of our Convent. The main selection criterion for them was, naturally, their proficiency in English. There were two sisters from the Monastic Choir, four brothers from the Festive Choir, Anton — a singer from the Male Choir, and Tatiana and Olga — one of them sings in the boarding home for children, and the other sings in other Minsk churches. Plus, Alexandra and Margaret — two MSLU undergraduates who sang in the student choir of that university — also participated in our choir.
Two of us knew practically no English — I mean Brother Konstantin and Nun Tatiana. Industrious people, they wrote Russian translations above the English texts in order to follow what we were singing. We all had to do a crash course in phonetics to level the variations.
Did you have any difficulties with translation?
We did not have to translate anything. The difficult part was in choosing one out of the many translations that exist. Since we sing in Church Slavonic, rather than Russian, in our church, we decided to choose a translation that would not sound too modern, a translation that uses…
The Shakespearean English?
No, not the language of Shakespeare, but a translation that uses some archaic and outdated words.
How did this idea come about? Why did people in a Belarusian Orthodox convent suddenly decide that they were to record church chants in English?
When we introduced our music CDs in Britain, people were asking, "Are they in English?" When we said that no, they aren't, we could spot the slight disappointment on the people's faces.
How did you choose the name for the album? Why not call it simply The Liturgy?
We tried to find a poetic name, which would sound equally good in Russian and in English, and be easily understood by all English speakers, be they Orthodox or Catholics or Protestants.
One of the chants has the following words, “Of Thy Mystical Supper, O Lord, may I today partake…” There is a tradition in some Orthodox parishes in Great Britain to sing this prayer during the communion, instead of the “Receive Ye the Body of Christ…” This is where the name of our album came from.
Click here to order a copy of The Mystical Supper |
Part Two. An interview with Konstantin Karmanov, the head of the audio studio of St Elisabeth Convent. On rehearsals, mutual aid, MIDI tracks, and other technicalities of creative process
How long did it take to release this album?
We did the first recording in 2010. A lot changed during this time: we changed mikes and some members of the choir… At times, I was beginning to think that this project would never end. It was when we were choosing the best takes during the editing stage that we felt we'd made it, in spite of all obstacles.
What were your rehearsals like?
By the time we could manage it for a rehearsal, we all were tired, having spent an entire day at work. Apart from that, I had to learn English. However, I saw how passionate everyone was to sing, to create, to be involved in our work, and this gave me strength.
Sure, it is hard to sing using manuscripts: some want to write down their own transliteration of the texts or make notes but there is no place in the music sheets to do that. This is why I decided to type this sheet music using a computer. In addition, we got MIDI tracks, which one could play and learn their parts independently. Not everyone needed them but some of us did. It was like a crash course in music for people whose main profession was not related to it. Naturally, we musicians explained all nuances and details – the things that every musician must know by default — to them as if they were kids. It sounded new and interesting to them. For us, professional musicians, this is a routine not unlike breakfast, lunch, and dinner; for translators and interpreters singing was like a real feast. The linguists, for instance, would change some words in the text because we could not always follow the written text to a tee. This exchange of knowledge during the rehearsals produced a unique experience.
We would record even in summer. Even though our linguists had exams and were getting ready for various contests, they still found time to come and sing with us. It was like: we gather for a recording session, and there is a thunderstorm outdoors. We would sing one take, wait for a thunderclap to pass, and then sing another one. You know, the proverb goes that there is no bad weather.
Some professionals visited us during our rehearsals and recording sessions. One of them was Nigel Rose, an Englishman. He is a choir director in his home country. Nigel listened to our singing and remarked that they never sang like this, that the way we sang was unprecedented.
Our first rehearsals made it evident that our singing was too amateurish. We made painfully slow progress: we had to gather seven or eight times in order to record just two chants. Nevertheless, recording sessions, or, more precisely, their inevitability, were the best motivation for all of us. As soon as I felt that it was time to do the recording, I would say, “Okay, let’s record it!” We met for recording sessions in the evenings: we would gather at around seven o’clock in the evening and warm up for the recording, which would go on until eleven, and sometimes even later. We liked to sing together.
What makes the Mystical Supper album so unique?
This album is unique because of the incredible creative approach and fresh treatment of familiar chants in a new and beautiful language. Originally, we took the church chants that are typical of our region and are often heard in the parishes of our Russian Orthodox Church but we adapted them to suit the liturgical English texts. We learned these chants at a leisurely pace, appropriated them by singing, and then recorded them. Our choir consisted of Slavic people who know English – a language that is very different from the original languages of these chants – well enough to sing in it. I assume that, as a result of this concerted endeavour, we managed to create an interesting church music sound mix, consisting of Slavonic church chants inseparably combined with worship texts from English church tradition.
I would like to highlight the fact that all these chants have a common nature and belong to one and the same cycle of the main Orthodox service – the Liturgy. This is very important because one could sing the Psalms, or specific concert pieces, or praise songs, but here we have liturgical chants taken from the regular rite of the Liturgy. The order in which they are recorded on the disc is the same order in which they are performed during the Liturgy.
Interview by Vadim Yanchuk
Ceramics workshop from St.Elisabeth Convent
Three Icons of the Mother of God
On Wednesday
August 26, three miracle-working icons of The Mother of God are commemorated.
They are the icon of the Mother of God of the Passion, the icon of the Mother of God
of the Seven Arrows and the icon of the Mother of God of Minsk…
The icon of the Mother of God of
Minsk was originally brought to Kiev by Prince Vladimir. In 1500, during the
invasion of khan Mengli I Giray, one of the Tatar solders stripped away the
jewels and casing of the icon and threw the icon into the Dnieper River. After
some sometime, the icon ended up floating on the Svisloch River and finally
reached the shores surrounded by a miraculous bright light. The icon was then
carried into the church of Nativity of the Holy Theotokos, which was located in
the castles of the local rulers of Minsk.
Before the Revolution of 1917,
this miracle working icon was in the St. John the Theologian –
Bogolyubsk-Seven-Arrow Church, a small country church on the banks of the
Toshin River, not far from the town of Vologda. In 1830 when cholera was
rampant in Vologda the terrified residents ran for help to the Queen of Heaven,
and taking up her Seven-arrows and Seven-city icons, carried them about the
city in a solemn Procession of the Cross. The epidemic visibly abated, and soon
the cholera entirely disappeared. From that time on, the icon was glorified
through many miraculous healings of the sick.
In the first half of the 17th century, a married woman by the name of was Yekaterina suffering from violent lunacy and lived in the village of Palets, which was a Nizhni Novgorod estate of Prince Lykov-Obotensky. One day, having come to her senses, she began to pray to the Mother of God for a cure and vowed that she would take the veil should her prayers be answered. After she was healed, she broke her vow to become a monastic, and continued to live with her husband all over again, giving birth to several children. Subsequently she look to her bed. In the course of her illness, the Mother of God appeared to her three times, reproaching her for disobedience.
During Her last appearance, the Mother of God commanded Yekaterina to visit icon-painter Grigory in the city of Nizhni Novgorod and pray before the Icon of the Mother of God '"Hodegetria" at his place. The woman obeyed was healed. The holy image was then translated to Prince Lykov's village of Palets and installed in the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian. Later on, in 17th Century on Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich's orders the icon was brought to Moscow, Here on August 13 the icon was solemnly met at the Tver Gates, where a church was built for it and in 1654 the Monastery of the Icon of the Mother of God "The Passion" was founded.
During Her last appearance, the Mother of God commanded Yekaterina to visit icon-painter Grigory in the city of Nizhni Novgorod and pray before the Icon of the Mother of God '"Hodegetria" at his place. The woman obeyed was healed. The holy image was then translated to Prince Lykov's village of Palets and installed in the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian. Later on, in 17th Century on Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich's orders the icon was brought to Moscow, Here on August 13 the icon was solemnly met at the Tver Gates, where a church was built for it and in 1654 the Monastery of the Icon of the Mother of God "The Passion" was founded.
About the Icon Casing Workshop
Visit the icon casing workshop |
The tradition of decorating sacred images with luxurious casings, comes from ancient time. Long since, Rus has followed the example of Byzantnium where highly revered icons were covered with jewel casings.
However, icon casing should not be considered a decoration. Primarily, icon casing has deep symbolic significance – as an offering of gratitude to the Lord, The Mother of God, the saints for their eternal help and support. For Example, the glow of gold symbolizes Divine grace, white shade of silver represents holiness and spiritual purity, and natural gems personify numerous moral virtues.
Today, icon casing craftsmanship remains an equally important art for the orthodox faithful, just as it was hundreds of years ago.
Icon painters of Saint Elisabeth Convent icon casing workshop paint in various historic styles. The process begins with painting an icon. Over a chalk ground board the craftsman outlines the images. It is very important to note that our workshop will paint the icon in its entirety as opposed to the 19th Century approach where only the visible parts of the icon were painted.
Gold plating is performed with leaf-gold, acryl, oil, and tempera are used to paint (“write”) the icon and if the icon is painted in an open case, it is covered with “asist”. Then it is time to place the casing which is an overlay covering board over the multicolored layer.
The icon casing workshop is known for making luxurious casings out of different fabrics. First of all, the craftsman outlines the shape of the image on thin paper. This is the basis or the initial pattern. If we break down the casing layer by layer, we will see the following: paper, unbleached calico, thick cloth, flax. All components are glued together and embellished with velvet.
Then the casing is embroidered with pearls, beads and spun gold. Stitch by stitch, bead by bead… and there are no random components. Casing elements include consignment halos (decoration around the head), riza (part of icon casing, covering images of clothing), frame (covering the edges), and the background (metal framing).
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About Our Blog
Welcome to the official blog of the Catalogue of St.Elisabeth Convent! The blog includes recent ministry updates of the convent, sermons, icons, personal stories and everything related to Orthodox Christianity. Join our Catalog of Good Deeds and become part of the ministry of St.Elisabeth Convent! #CatalogOfGoodDeeds