(no subject)

[stillbourne]

Byzantine art is very distinctive. It appears at first glance like the artist either is doing a poor job at rendering realistic images, or is trying to emulate Oriental art with biblical characters....
and maybe that the artist thought using a lot of gold would make it look better--or richer perhaps.
Well, none of that is really true.

They are Icons.
Let me explain.



My family are Precisely Carpatho-rusyn byzantines. WHich means we are from the corner where Poland,
Slovakia and the Ukrane meet...on the Slovakian side...Right IN the carpathian mountains.

Long story short (this time WORLD history), the roman and byzantine emprires were combined, Roman emperor
Constantine moved the capitol to Constantinople in 330, next up theodosis divided the
empire between his sons in 395 and one makes rome the capitol = roman empire which soon falls to ostrogoths
in 476. Byzantine side still survive. Byzantine Emporer Justinian invades Persia and somewhere in here they
gain Turkey and they prosper for about 800 or so years. During this time, the Byzantines send Cyril and
Methodius, missionary monks, to the Russians, Bulgars, and Slavs. FINALLY Cyril gives the Slavs a written
alphabet (which to this day is still called Cyrillic) and, of course being monks and all, a translated bible.
The Byzantine Empire had this type of Christianity developed there: More mystical and more liturgical
than Roman Christianity, it was also less unified because of age-old ethnic hostilities in the region,
the survival of various heresies among the clergy in Syria, Egypt, and other provinces, and the early
use of the demotic (vernacular) languages in religious services.
SO:
The Carpatho Rusyns kinda adapt the Byzantine religion into their own culture/beliefs/traditions so its
an odd mix of folk stuff and hardfast cold tradition. As you can see, since my ancestors had no formal
written language until then, this religion is a staple to its culture...at least for the part we can
research properly.

With this bit of history, you can see that Byzantine art/archectecture/church have been entertwined
since its conception. It is the visible mark that sets the 'eastern orthodox'
& byzantines apart from any modern and still functioning religion sections. ... and my favorite part
of the culture.

Remember this history for later too, but
Lets get back to the art, shall we?

Byzantines never saw their icons as an art, but more as a craft. You were taught the skill and you
follow it as precicely as you can. THis is why you cant place byzantine art into a finished, historic
art movement because the iconographers today STILL make the icons as close to the old style as possible.
you can argue that its movement can be placed in the Byzantine empire era, and I agree with this, but
what I mean is that there are still iconographers workng today and you couldnt tell much difference
from the older ones (except obviously the age wear). Unlike other christians who have various portrayals
of christ/mary/etc, Byzantines are very strict in what the image needs to look like. Since in its essence
the icon, like the word, is a liturgical art. It never served religion but, like the word, has always been
and is an integral part of religion. Instead of portraying 'god', it is one of the instruments for the
knowledge of God, and a means of communion with him. (thus why the iconoclasts had such a fit. LOL)

when looking at byzantine icons, you'll see, instead of an exact likeness, but a 'deified' image, 'radiant
with divine light' so they say, thus the use of a LOT of gold and structured forms. Consequently, everything
which reminds you of a human being (face, hands, etc) is angular and has meaning in the icon-- my guess is that
this is oriental inspired. Even the sizes of men/women are not porportionate to the person next to them to explain
their importance to the story that the icon depicts.. A realistic portrait of a Saint cannot be an icon to byzantines
because it reflects not his transfigured but his ordinary state. This make sense?

An icon never strives to stir the emotions of the viewer. Its task is not to provoke in them natural
human emotion, but to guide every emotion as well as the reason and all the other faculties of human
nature on the way toward holiness. All that is depicted in the icon reflects not the disorder of our chaotic world,
but Divine Order, peace, a realm governed not by earthly logic, not by human morality, but by Divine Grace. This is why
what we see in the icon is so unlike what we see in ordinary life.

Its kinda like visual prayer.

I hope I made SOME sense.
its hard to explain.

Ill get into ritual and stuff soon.
andsheewas may be able to fill in the blanks where I am not clear...

Look Erte was inspired by this too. IMNHO
http://home.att.net/~star_child/Byzantine-Cal.jpg

Comments

[leenerella]

It makes a lot of sense. :) Thanks!

[andsheewas.livejournal.com]

Interesting thing about icons that Jen sort of touched on. Technically, they aren't "painted;" they are written as they tell a story. There is also much meaning in the colors used. My mother could shed a better light on it, but I know that martyrs get certain colors as opposed to the other saints and so forth. It's quite interesting.

In the medieval art section of the Philly art museum there is a great collection of icon-inspired stuff.

[stillbourne.livejournal.com]

Yeah yeah!!!!

I missed that completely!
thanks!!!!!
they need to read that!

[domestinatrix.livejournal.com]

That does make sense. Thank you for sharing this -- this is the kind of stuff i love learning about.

[liberpolly.livejournal.com]

i think i walked around all that corner of mountains that your family is from :)

under "byzantine" do you mean russian orthodox church or greek orthodox? or some other flavor?

my favorite icon:

more here: http://www.rublev.voskres.ru/

[stillbourne.livejournal.com]

Yes. thats a beautiful one...

We arent technically orthodox.
the difference between Byzantine Catholics and the Greek orthodox is ONLY that we follow the pope. EVERYTHING else is the same --church service wise, alyway.
I guess I should have referred to it by the proper name: Byzantine Catholic. I say byzantine because there is a difference between byzantine and roman catholics.


thats really cool you been there!!! I WILL someday :)
AH! Domovina!

[liberpolly.livejournal.com]

ah, i see. it's called "uniat" church over there. city of l'vov has mnany of them too, parallel to russian orthodox and catholic.

[andsheewas.livejournal.com]

What I tell my friends...we are eastern in our traditions (like the orthodox) but for some reason we are still under the Pope (hence the Catholicism).

[optimum-wound.livejournal.com]

real interesting, I love religious art. Even though I'm not religious it's great reading the story behind the picture.

[luchog.livejournal.com]

" WHich means we are from the corner where Poland,
Slovakia and the Ukrane meet"

Cool. So... My ancestors might have beaten up your ancestors. :)

<--Cossack

[tragedy-ann777.livejournal.com]

neat!!!

[poh.livejournal.com]

Loves me some Byzantine...anything.

Psst, the Byzantines always had Anatolia. Only when the Turks took it was it called "Turkey."

I'll have to lend you the first volume of the "Byzantium" series by John Julius Norwich which touches on the Iconoclasm movement and how this touched on Islam. The use (or not) of icons in military victories, stuff like that. :D

wow

[therivernews.livejournal.com]

wow... very informative... I like it... yeah... you make tons of sense... It's always good to read your posts for sure...

hugs and love always,

Mickey

[staxxy.livejournal.com]

I studied art history a bit, long ago, but the only iconography I touched on was how it influenced artisitic movements and artists (like Erte and several other Art Deco artists, and then again later in some of the Pop Art of the sixties) over the ages. Thank you so much for sharing this, it really fills in a lot of blank spots in my references, and gives a richer tapestry to the full implications of those influences as well.

What is *most* interesting about the iconography is that it IS more of a written language than art. I suspect that the composition of each image (not just who is in it or the way they are drawn, but the exact shapes and size references, and the foreground/background subdivisions) are integral to the message provided here. In a lot of ways this hits that "oooo cryptography EEEEE!!" part of my brain too.

I have known, for a few years, that iconography was a large part of heraldry work. Now I understand how and why this is. (on that note, can I PLLEAAAASE do a cut and paste of this post for my friend Lawst who is doing mideival scroll work now? She would be interested and inspired by this information as well and I would really love to share it with her).

Thank you so very very much for posting this. It has taken me a few days to comment on it because I have been reading it a little at a time and really considering the information here. It's a lot to take in and I wanted to process it all, and integrate it with the information I already have - make sure everything was connecting to everything else. I am sooo happy to learn this. I am really looking forward to seeing more about this in your LJ!!!

[stillbourne.livejournal.com]

sure :)
feel free to link it.

Ill make it public right now.

[staxxy.livejournal.com]

HOT!!! THANKS!!!

[vulture23.livejournal.com]

That's neat. Actually, it sounds similar in many ways to the attitude of the ancient Egyptians to their art -- it was a craft, and the goal was to follow an established form rather than to be creative, and it was intended to be a symbolic rather than a literal representation. Which makes me wonder (given geography and historical ties) how much the Byzantine iconographic movement was affected by Egyptian traditions... i.e., whether these similarities are due to direct influence or whether they are just coincidental.

[lawst.livejournal.com]

One thing I've found in my studies is that while anyone can paint an icon style picture, not everyone can paint a true icon. The specific is that the entire process from grinding the paints to the end is one long prayer. I've always loved the imagry, but I know that I will never be able to truely paint one.