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Icons are for prayer
(a guide written for the religious art store)
“I am not asking you to do anything more than to
look at Him”
St Teresa of Avila ‘The Way of Perfection’
The purpose and
function of an icon
It is quite common to hear that icons are “windows
into heavens”. Unfortunately, this poetic metaphor
has a flavour of distantly gazing, through a window,
into the immeasurably far away heavens – where God
is surrounded by his angels and his saints. The
icon, on this take, has something to do with
“beautiful enigmatic art” along with notions like
“artifact”, “museum”, even “esoteric” and so on.
There could be no more contrary approach to the
meaning of the icon than this one.
While icon painting unites both fine art and the
wealth of theology (namely Christological and
Trinitarian dogmas) the first true icons (that is,
not symbolic representations like lamb or fish) were
born out of the simple need of a human heart, to
look at the portraits of those they love. The
portrait-like depictions of Jesus Christ and Virgin
Mary appeared first; the dogma of the Seventh
Ecumenical Council about the veneration of the holy
images was second. Likewise, the prayer of a
believer before an icon of Christ, true God and true
man, was first – it is only centuries later that
icon painting was proclaimed to be the activity that
reinforces the reality of Incarnation. The active
engagement with the icon was first, the dogma which
defends such engagement was second.
A door, not a window
Hence icons satisfy the need of a believer to have a
portrait of those he loves. But there is much more.
A person who suddenly stops before an icon, being
drawn by it, looks intently into the eyes of Christ
for some time and then sinks into prayer repeats
exactly that what happens in the Gospels with the
contemporaries of Christ. Countless people there are
stopped by Christ and forced to look into His Face
or, longing to see Him, are joining the crowds or
climbing a tree or on roof tops and inevitably find
themselves being pulled out by Christ, from the
crowd or the tree, for the purpose of looking at
each other. And then something happens: via looking
into the human Face of God a person is brought into
the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven; the Kingdom
which is here and now, the Incarnated Christ being
the Door into the Kingdom of Heaven Himself! The
person who suddenly engages with Christ via
contemplation of His icon is not different from one
in the Gospels. The icon, so to speak, is the
picture on the Door who is Christ, the picture which
makes the [now] invisible visible, the door into the
Door, together with the Gospels which are the
portrait of Christ in words.
The function of an icon then is to pull a person
into the reality of Christ. How does it do this? –
First, via depicting the reality of the spiritual
world which invites a viewer to step into it. The
One depicted on the icon definitely has a life and
radiates a sense of presence. He is not like a photo
or a portrait of a relative who has passed away; He
looks at the viewer intently now and waits for the
response here and now. And yet, although His
presence is very real He is of another world or
better to say via looking at Him a viewer sees much
more than only a human being in Him.
If a viewer says “yes” to the invitation his mind
will be gradually stilled and silenced. It is
achieved by a specific visual language (peculiar
rhythm of lines, choice of colours, proportions,
even technique) which makes an icon an organic part
of the prayer of the Church. So, an icon is not a
“window into heaven” but a visual depiction of a
prayer and invitation to pray at the same time. It
also has an imprint of the personal prayer of the
iconographer, to the subject of his work and of his
personal spiritual experience.
However, even the hypothetical “best icon in the
world” can do nothing if the proper disposition of
the viewer is missing, just like Christ in the
Gospels could do nothing if a person was not willing
to to engage with Him. While no one prays to the
icon itself but prays to its prototype a believer is
expected to approach an icon with the same reverence
if as he was before the prototype. If this attitude
is absent a viewer typically sees nothing but “art”.
This is entirely logical: the component of reverence
to the prototype is absent for him so he is unable
to engage with the latter. [The lack of reverence I
believe signifies the lack of personal connection.
Who could approach Our Lord casually, with his hand
in the pockets so to speak? Then how can His icon be
approached casually? It is entirely normal, for a
human being, to transfer his feelings for a person
to their depiction; a lover kissing his treasure, a
photo of his beloved is an obvious example.]
What was said about the function of the icons of Our
Lord also applies to the icons of Our Lady and the
Saints – the persons who dwell in the reality of the
Kingdom of Heaven and who reflect Christ, who are
themselves Christ-like.
How to see an icon
1. Icons are designed to be looked at “up”, not
“down”. They are usually placed slightly above eye
level, both in churches and in homes. There is an
anecdote from Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
(London), about a convert to Eastern Orthodoxy who
“could not see anything in icons” – something he
related to the Orthodox congregation while casually
glancing at the icon of Christ. A young woman
advised him: “try to kneel”. So he did, and suddenly
he saw. The kneeling of course forced him not just
to change his point of view but his attitude as
well.
In the Orthodox household the smaller icons are
usually not hung but placed on special shelves from
which they can occasionally be taken to hold in
hands during a meditation, for the sake of creating
more intimacy with the One depicted.
Noteworthy, this active engagement with the holy
images is not exclusive to Eastern Orthodoxy. In
Spain, for example, Roman Catholics carry the holy
images (statues) in the streets at certain feasts,
just like the Holy Host is carried on the feast
Corpus Christi. Those facts highlight a close
connection between the holy images and the
Eucharistic Christ; one can also recall the
devotions to the Holy Face which is intimately
connected with the Eucharist, and so on.
2. It takes time to connect with the depicted
Person. Just as engaging with someone in flesh and
blood, a few seconds of casual looking will not do.
3. Remaining in the presence of God while looking at
an icon is, in my opinion, an equivalent of “a
prayer of a simple look” (Roman Catholic
definition), a very simple affectionate prayer which
is said to be a necessary step towards
contemplation. My opinion seems to be confirmed by
the advice of St Teresa of Avila to her nuns always
to have with them a picture of Our Lord which stirs
their affection and also her words about prayer “I
am not asking you to do anything more than to look
at Him”. It is not surprising then that many, at
some point, being pulled closer by the Lord, stop
noticing the icon and go into whatever prayer the
Lord gives to them. A person, being led by Christ,
moves from the icon into his own heart.
There is nothing “esoteric” about those two
approaches, Orthodox and Carmelite; both simply use
the holy images to focus all attention on the Person
of Christ.
4. Apart from being the focus for prayer, the icons
serve as an aid to developing the sense of being in
God’s presence (that is also a prayer of course).
Some common misconceptions about icons
It is probably easy to see, in the context of what
was said before, that a commonly heard statement “a
true icon must be of Byzantine or Russian style made
with gold and egg tempera on wood” has very little
to do with the primary purpose of the holy images.
It is quite possible to make an icon with acrylics
on paper and not in Byzantine but Georgian or
Ethiopian or any style and, as long as it is in
conformity with the teaching the Church and pulls
the viewer into a relationship with God, it is an
icon. It is equally possible to make a perfectly
Byzantine looking icon painted with egg tempera on
wood layered with gold which will look not as a door
or even a window into heavens but something
impenetrable. Naturally, different people would feel
affinity with very different icons – this is why
different styles and different approaches are good –
but one should look for a personal connection first
and only then think about the materials and style.
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