Iconography of the Mother of God: All Creation Rejoices in Thee
The second installment of the talk on iconography with
Father Sergious, the head of the icon-painting studio and icon painting school at St.
Elisabeth Convent:
The
iconography of the Mother of God is thoroughly developed in comparison with
other types of icons. There
are twelve major feasts in the liturgical year of the Orthodox Church. Some of
these feasts are related to the life of the Mother of God. There are icons of
such feasts, too. There
is not much information about the Mother of God in the Holy Scriptures. We do
not have detailed descriptions of her appearance, either.
There
is a description of what Jesus looked like, which is allegedly a later
compilation because it could not possibly appear in the 1st century,
in spite of what it claims; and there is a description of what the Mother of
God looked like, too. This description not only states that she was
good-looking but also provides a lot of details concerning the color of her
hair, her eyes, and her height. I believe that this description is likely an
invention of a pious author who lived much later. This could happen because
before the invention of the printing press, the texts of the Holy Scriptures
circulated in manuscripts.
Nicephorus
Callistus, a Church historian, cited the following iconographic convention with
regard to the appearance of the Mother of God: Her height was average, or, as
some say, slightly above average; she had golden hair; her eyes were sparkling
and somewhat olive in color; her eyebrows were arched and black-ish; her nose
was oblong; her lips were luscious and filled with sweet words; her face was
neither round, nor narrow, but slightly long; her hands and fingers were long,
too.
Interestingly
enough, even the texts written by such authors as Plato or Socrates - i.e., the
heritage of the antiquity - survived to the present day in such manuscripts.
These manuscripts were copied by Christians, I must add. Though why would they
need the heritage of pagan antiquity, it may seem? In any case, all texts were
distributed by copying, and each scribe had the temptation to enrich the text
somehow or add something to it in the process. Maybe this is the reason why
such later insertions, that claimed to be authentic, crept into the original
texts.
Icon of the Entry of the Mother of God
into the Temple
This
is an iconographic depiction of one of the twelve major Orthodox feasts. It is
interesting to observe how a certain event in the life of a saint - the Mother
of God in this case - later becomes not just a story, not just a description of
something that happened at a certain time: it acquires eternal meaning thanks
to the icon. See, the remarkable composition that the icon painter found, was
not by mere chance.
Joachim
and Anne, the parents, point at the little Virgin Mary. The High Priest meets
her in the Temple, and there is a column that grows from within her and
supports the canopy over the altar. Its color is similar to the light with
which her omophorion shines. She, the Mother of God, is like that column on
which, basically, the living temple rests. The icon teaches us dogmatic truths
through these images, although these are not evident sometimes. Here we have an
interesting interpretation of the event because, naturally, such Royal Doors
could not exist in the Jerusalem Temple.
All these notions: The Holy of Holies,
the Temple, the Mother of God - they gradually become tightly intertwined in church
hymns and worship books. The Mother of God enters the Temple; at the same time,
she also becomes, in
I
would like to note that in terms of iconography, the Mother of God always has
the same age, in fact. Even in her childhood (e.g., she is said to be 3 years
old by the time of her entry into the Temple). If we look at the Mother of God
as portrayed on this icon, it would be hard for us to deduce her age from the
proportions of her body. You can't say that here she is, for example, a
toddler, and then she grows older and older, and when she stands by the Cross,
she is even older. By the time of the Annunciation, she was younger than 18; by
the time of the Savior's death, she was around 50 already. She was even older
by the time of her Dormition (Assumption).
The Mother of God looks the same on
all icons, and this is what makes the language of iconography so special: it is
so symbolic that the question of age does not arise. On the contrary, when
icons pretend to be realistic, there immediately appear some strange
inconsistencies: we see the Savior on the Cross, and a young Mother of God
stands beside him. So when they become so much like us (I mean, when icons are
painted in the realistic manner), there is that strange situation: something
must be wrong - they do not look like a
Mother and a Son. However, the icon manages to avoid this awkwardness.
Born in Antiquity
The
clothes of the Mother of God and her appearance - and the way people painted
her on the icons - have their roots in antiquity. See this statue from an
Istanbul museum that boasts a very good collection of Christian and antique
art. You see, this kind of clothes was typical of women in the Middle East - a
tunic resembling a long dress, and an omophorion - a veil that covers not only
one's hair but almost her entire body. A traditional outfit of an Oriental
woman became a norm for the iconography of not just the Mother of God but also
almost all women we see on icons, with an exception of several special cases. A
woman's hair was covered, as a rule, to signify that she was married. We never
see the Mother of God with uncovered hair or with flowing hair on canonical
icons, unlike in the Western art, which freely exploits this image.
There
hardly were images of the Mother of God on early icons, miniatures, and
frescoes, that we could immediately recognize. (Mosaic) This is an icon of the
Mother of God, and you might not even be able to guess that it is an icon of
the Annunciation. See how strange it looks for us. There are many Angels, one
of which soars above the Mother of God's head like a dove, while she sits on
her throne doing handcrafts. There is an Angel standing beside her, who
announces the Good News to her. The Mother of God wears the clothes of a rich
and noble Roman woman, with decorations, even earrings. It is strange for a
God-fearing modern person to see the Mother of God wearing earrings. It is
quite evident that the traditions that we deem sacrosanct, are in fact relative
and have a historical development of their own. It wasn't so shocking for
ancient people to portray the Mother of God in such a way; it was nothing out
of the ordinary.
The
Diversity of Iconographic Faces
The
countless diversity of the icons of the Mother of God may be divided into
several groups. First
of all, it is Panachranta, or The Immaculate.
For
instance, this is one of the earliest icon types that shows us the Mother of
God sitting on the throne. It is an antique tradition again, but the Mother of
God wears the traditional garments - a tunic and an omophorion. She is easily
recognizable here. The Mother of God is portrayed together with martyrs, and
there are two Angels standing behind the throne, like guards who protect the
Most Holy Virgin. This icon was painted using encaustics, like almost all early
icons. Such an icon is painted on a wooden board using hot wax paints. The
famous Faiyum mummy portraits were also made using such a technique.
In
general, this technique makes it difficult to paint tiny details, but ancient
icon painters were really good at it: take note of the fact that the face of
the Mother of God on this icon is lifelike. Strangely for us, it does not look
ascetic: she has big eyes and fresh complexion. Despite some asymmetrical
traits, her face is filled with inner vigor.
This
mosaic has a similar composition: the Mother of God sits on the throne. Her
fingers make a fairly rare gesture: we seldom see women on icons making this
hand gesture. As a rule, this gesture is typical of the Savior, the Apostles,
sometimes Angels, but female saints and the Mother of God are almost never
portrayed with their hands making this gesture. This is, perhaps, the
only such case. She wears regular clothes, apart from the cap that covers her
hair. Her omophorion is cherry red, and she has gold stripes on her tunic.
A
similar icon is located in the conch of the Hosios Loukas church in Greece. The
Mother of God is shown with the attributes that we are accustomed to - the
three stars on her omophorion that symbolize her perpetual virginity. That is,
she was a virgin before the Nativity, a virgin during the Nativity, and a
virgin after the Nativity of our Savior. The inscriptions "Mother" on
the left and "of God" on the right accompany this image. Generally
speaking, the conch is the focal point of the entire church, so to say. It is
in the conch, in the center of the artistic ensemble, that the icon of the
Mother of God sitting on the throne with Baby Jesus on her lap is located.
The
Reigning icon of the Mother of God is another example of this type of icons. The
globus cruciger, sceptre, and crown are a later tradition: these regalia had
not been displayed on icons in the ancient times; it must have come to us from
the West even. The Catholics have a tradition: when an icon becomes highly
venerated and exceedingly important, they "crown" that icon. The Pope
issues an edict, and they put a crown onto that widely-acclaimed icon. Gradually, after having been copied or
reprinted several times, this crown would become an inalienable attribute of
the image itself. Though, of course, the Mother of God does not need these
royal insignia. Nevertheless, they are present even in the Orthodox iconography;
but we must be aware of the fact that they are a later addition.
We
have to mention that when the Mother of God is depicted sitting on the throne,
this does not mean that she did sit on a throne: in fact, she never sat on any
throne during her life. Nonetheless, this image has become a standard since the
earliest times, and it has been repeated through various epochs, in different
ways, and in different styles.
Another
iconographic type is called Hodegetria, or "Showing the Way." It is a
very widespread icon type. The most famous examples of the Hodegetria type are:
Our Lady of Smolensk, Iveron icon of the Mother of God, Tikhvin icon of the
Mother of God, icons of the Mother of God of Georgia, the Mother of God of
Jerusalem, the Mother of God of Three Hands, Mother of God of Passion, the
Black Madonna of Częstochowa, Mother of God of Cyprus, Mother of God of Abalak,
the Surety of Sinners icon of the Mother of God, etc. The Mother of God is
portrayed pointing at Christ. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth,
and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)
Her
hand points at the Way. Usually, the Savior is portrayed almost full frontal,
as well as the Mother of God. Her
face is amazingly meek on this icon painted by Dionysius. When you look at her,
you cannot understand how the artist managed to achieve it, and it is
staggering. As an icon painter, I would love to find out how he made it but I realize
that everything is built around so many nuances here, it is so refined, that you
almost find it impossible to imagine how a person could paint this with his
hands. At the same time, it seems that this image is very simple, and there is
nothing special about it. However, this image is so amazing that you can delve
into it deeper and deeper, you can look into this depth that is deeper than
Mona Lisa. In fact, Mona Lisa is very majestic, too. It is a profound portrait
in a sense. You can explore it, too, but this icon is much deeper and has to be
approached in a different way.
The
icon of the Mother of God of Kazan belongs to the same type. It may be called a
"shoulder-length Hodegetria" - we don't see the hands of the Mother
of God here. We see the Savior who looks straight at us and extends his hand in
blessing.
Tenderness (Greek Eleousa, Îλεουσα)
Some
of the icons that belong to this type are among our most favorite and
well-known, such as the Our Lady of Vladimir icon, which is now located in
Tretyakov Gallery, in a special chapel and an icon case that protects this icon
against adverse atmospheric conditions. Anyway, one can venerate this icon and
pray in front of it. This icon is unique because only the faces of the Mother
of God and the Savior were painted by its original author, whereas the rest of
the icon was painted later. This icon was painted in the course of several
centuries. The faces were painted in the twelfth century, and some of the other
elements were painted in the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. A person who
see this icon for the first time may think that this is how it should be. In
fact, the color of vestments, the hands, and the gold hatching on the baby used
to be completely different. Radically different. If we saw this icon as it had
been intended to be, we might not even recognize it. We've got used to this
image, so naturally, when a contemporary icon painter paints it like this, he
makes a mistake from
the point of view of historical accuracy, because this situation
developed with time. Some people write about this icon that it was Holy
Evangelist Luke who painted this icon using a board that had served as the
tabletop during the Last Supper. But that's impossible, I mean the painting
style: St. Luke could not paint this icon because the way it is painted is
attributed to the twelfth century. It is possible that Holy Evangelist Luke
painted the Mother of God but it is difficult to say how he did it and in what
manner. Possibly, the icons that he painted have survived to the present day in
later copies. It is only in this sense that one can say that Our Lady of
Vladimir was painted by St. Luke, but not in the literal sense that people
sometimes put into it.
This
icon is painted in the Byzantine style. After it was brought to Russia, it was
involved in many historic events. We have several feasts dedicated to this
Vladimir icon of the Mother of God. It was thanks to prayers in front of this
icon that our Russian Orthodox civilization was rescued several times. So it is
natural that the icon of the Mother of God of Vladimir is something like a
spiritual magnet that attracts people. Whenever I visited Tretyakov Gallery,
I always saw people approach this icon
with immense awe and faith.
What
is special about this iconographic type? The fact that the faces of the Mother
of God and the Savior are so close to one another, which is why one of the
names for this icon is A Tender Kiss. Their
faces are so close to one another because they love one another as a mother and
a son. It is through this unity that the love of God towards man is expressed. The
Mother of God represents the entire humankind, and the Savior represents God. God
is so close to us; He saves us without alienating us. He is really engaged with
the human beings. This image is so wonderful. The
Vladimir icon has many replicas. These replicas aren't "copies" in
the contemporary meaning of this word in ancient times. When someone ordered a
replica of an icon of the Mother of God, the icon painter made this icon
according to the style and the way of looking at things that was typical of his
time and his school.
The
icon of the Mother of God of the Don also belongs to the same type. It is
located in Tretyakov Gallery, too. According to some experts, it was Theophan
the Greek who painted the Don icon. The icon of the Mother of God of Zhirovichi
belongs to the same type, too.
Yet
another iconographic type is called Hagiosortissa, or Prayerful. There were no
such elaborate iconostases in churches in ancient times, so people would often
paint an image of the praying Mother of God on a left pillar or column, and an icon
of the Savior on the right pillar. This icon type shows the Mother of God
without Baby Jesus: she raises her hands in prayer, and she has a scroll in her
hands with a prayer to the Savior. Take, for example, this icon. It has a very
complex composition: the elders of Solovki kneel in supplication to the Most
Holy Mother of God, and she, in turn, prays to the Savior.
One
of the other most prominent types of iconography is Oranta. See these hands
raised in prayer? This hand gesture had already existed in ancient Jewish
worship. You might recall a scene from the Old Testament when the elect people
fought their enemies, and the Lord told Moses that as long as you stand with
your arms raised up (it is a symbol, of course), the Israelites will win. Moses
stood and prayed, and the Israelites were winning that battle. However, if you
try keeping your arms up, you will know how hard it is. Moses' arms gradually
moved down - and immediately, Israelites began losing their battle, so in the
end, some people would stand beside Moses and support his arms.
This
gesture of one's arms raised in prayer existed in the Old Testament practice: you
see, it made its way into the art of catacombs, too. Later it became a way of
displaying prayer. You may have noticed
our priests in the sanctuary raise their hands at certain times during the
worship.
Here
we see a fairly ancient icon from the catacombs: the Mother of God with her
hands up, and Christ shown in her womb. Here
is a well-known mosaic in Kyiv. It is remarkable how this church managed to
survive all wars: it dates back to the twelfth century, and it was constructed
even earlier. The mosaic dates back approximately to the 12th
century. So there is the icon of Oranta, also known as the Indestructible Wall
or the Sign, in the apse of this church. People call this type of image
differently sometimes.
An
Orthodox church is designed in such a way that all images are interconnected:
the Mother of God in the conch prays to the Savior in the dome. Why
do they call this kind of icons “The Sign”? It is because the Savior shown in
the womb of the Mother of God is not yet born, it is something like a sign that
the Divine Child will be born of a Virgin. She does not hold him in her arms.
Sometimes the Savior on ancient icons is portrayed in such a way as if he has
not yet appeared. There is even an ancient icon where the Divine Baby is almost
invisible on the vestments of the Mother of God.
All Creation Rejoices in Thee...
Some
icons depict very complex narratives, such as “All Creation Rejoices in Thee.”
In fact, this is the name of a hymn to the Most Holy Theotokos sung during the
Liturgy of St Basil the Great, which is celebrated on Sundays of the Great
Lent. Basically, this Liturgy is celebrated only ten times a year. This
wonderful hymn “All Creation Rejoices in Thee, O Virgin Full of Grace...” is
sung at the moment when a priest in the sanctuary reads the profound and
powerful prayers of St Basil the Great for everyone who loves or hates us: all
creation, including all Angels, all people, all the earth.
The author of this
late 16th century icon is Dionysius who tried to translate hymns
into iconography. Everything is still very traditional here. St John Damascene,
the author of this hymn, is shown on this icon with a scroll in his hand. He is
the closest figure to the Mother of God, as if he is the one who sings this
hymn to her. Here we see Angels, Apostles, High Priests, bishops, holy monks,
hermits, prophets, holy women, right-believing princes and princesses. The
Mother of God is shown with a big halo around her, which is called a
“mandorla”. All these people are focused on prayer to Jesus Christ and His
Mother. If you listen to this hymn and look at the icon, you’ll be surprised
how the painter managed to match the poetic symbolism of the hymn with his
icon. A rare image and a remarkably great composition.
Holy Shroud
There
is a holy shroud of the Lord Jesus Christ with an image of the Savior in the
tomb in every Orthodox church. A similar holy shroud, but with an image of the
Mother of God, is in many churches and monasteries. It symbolizes the Theotokos
at the moment of her death – the Assumption, and is almost universally used in
worship. Such a Shroud entered the church usage under the influence of
Jerusalem tradition in the 19th century. There is a Shroud of the
Most Holy Mother of God in a small church at the Gethsemane metochion, which
became the prototype and the pattern for later copies. Nowadays,
a shroud is a carved flat wooden figure of the Mother of God laid on a blue velvet
base decorated with gold embroidery. The face and the hands of the Mother of
God are painted; her vestments are decorated with precious and semiprecious
stones and pearls.
