Byzantine Christian Art

[Roymond]

On 7/3/2020 at 10:56 PM, Fidei Defensor said:

One of the ikons (icons) I love by Rubelev. The three beings are meant to be Father (far left, gold), Son (niddle, red and blue represnt two natures of Christ, God and Man), and Holy Spirit (far righf, green because Spirit hovered over the waters). The wings didn’t always mean angels, it can be artistic motif forcflight or heavely authority, wings represnting heaven. At the bottom of the table you see a rectangle, originally there was mirror so you saw yourself earing at the table with the Trinity! 

The painting is meant to depict when The Trinity came and ate with Abraham: 

“The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up( and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. He said, If I have found favor in your eyes,my Lord,  do not pass your servant by. Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.” (Genesis 18:1-5). God the Trinity appears as three men. This is not to be confused with yhe two angels (Genesis 19).  

 

 

 

Notice also:  they all have the same face.  The only face we have for God is Jesus, so if you're doing an icon that points beyond the plain subject matter to the Trinity, you make the faces the same.

[Roymond]

On 7/13/2020 at 5:20 PM, Fidei Defensor said:

I find icons very alluring, there is something about them.. they are soothing to look at. 

 

A girl in a college class when we went to visit an Orthodox church stopped at an icon very much like this, stared a moment, and said, "It makes me think of Narnia, like we could just step through!"

Not many icons strike me that way, but when they do it's both eerie and awesome.