The Icon:
Meyendorff, John
Variety within unity THE ICON Kurt Weitzmann, Gaiane Alibegasvili, Aneli Volskaja, Manolis Chatzidakis, Gordana Babic, Mihail Alpatov, and Teodora Voinescu Alfred A. Knopf, $60, 419 pp. John...
...Early Christian and medieval art admitted a much greater variety of techniques...
...The general conception of the book rightly emphasizes the centrality of Constantinople and the fundamental unity of the artistic and spiritual tradition in the Orthodox world - unity which, however, allowed for an incredible variety of local traditions and creative expressions based on national civilizations belonging to what has been called the Byzantine "commonwealth...
...The place given in the book to Georgian icons chased in metal, to Georgian cloisonnes enamels, as well as the fascinating painted icons, often reflecting Persian influences, is highly welcome...
...Thus, one discovers icons of Western saints - St...
...Catherine's Monastery near Mt...
...Opening with a general introduction by Weitzmann on the origins and significance of icons, the book is divided into seven chapters, written by the best specialists and discussing Eastern Christian art in various countries which were religiously and culturally connected with Byzantium between the sixth and the seventeenth centuries...
...The title of the book - The Icon - indicates the inevitable limits of its scope...
...eikon) means simply "image," it is used today primarily to designate portable pictures: paintings on wood, enamels, encaustics, mosaics, carved metal, or ivory...
...Leonard of Limoges - side by side with those of Eastern holy men, preserved for centuries in the world's greatest collection of early Christian icons at St...
...The texts by various authors which accompany the reproductions provide a great amount of historical information and reflect differences in style and method...
...In vivid contrast, The Icon was conceived and published by a remarkable international team of art historians under the general editorship of Professor Kurt Weitzmann of Princeton...
...John Meyendorff THE extraordinary interest in Eastern Christian iconography continuously shown by so many and so diverse people is creating a widespread demand for the art objects themselves and for publications related to them...
...On the other hand, The Icon, in the choice of reproductions and in the commentary, is not strictly limited to portable objects, but is also occasionally concerned with some monumental mosaics and wall paintings...
...The choice of illustrations and the excellent quality of the reproduction techniques make it a significant event in the field of art publication...
...This slight inconsistency was probably inevitable in a discussion of Christian art as such, and could have been avoided only by broadening the subject to include all the forms of that art in the Christian East...
...In some chapters a strictly comparative art-historical methodology predominates, while the chapter on Russian icons reflects stylistic concerns, very characteristic of the contemporary revival of interest for Old Russia in the Soviet Union...
...Sinai...
...The inevitably short but highly relevant remarks in the introduction about the theological justification of image veneration in Orthodox Byzantium by its defenders during the iconoclastic controversy (726-843), and about the connection which always exists between art and liturgy, should encourage those interested in the spiritual and theological dimensions of the icons to further reading in such publications as The Meaning of Icons by Ouspensky-Lossky, or in other, easily available introductions to the theology of the Orthodox Church.hodox Church...
...Professor Weitzmann rightly points out that "the widely accepted notion that an icon must be a painted panel" is a misconception, based simply on the fact that, in the later period, icons were most often executed in this form...
...Although the word icon (Gr...
...The icons of Constantinople itself are treated by Kurt Weitzmann in chapter 1. The other chapters are concerned respectively with Georgia, the icons of the Balkan peninsula and the Greek islands, the period of the Crusades, Russia and Wallachia-Moldavia (or Romania), and are written by scholars living and working in these respective countries, except for the chapter on the period of the Crusades by Weitzmann himself...
...Martin of Tours, St...
...Whereas the development of Christian art of Byzantine tradition in Greece and other Balkan countries, as well as in Russia, is well known, the fascinating art of Georgia, a country in the distant Caucasus region converted to Christianity in the fourth century and which, as distinct from neighboring Armenia, remained in communion with Orthodox Byzantium, remains largely unknown in the West...
...Another discovery which readers may make is the art, in often strict Byzantine tradition, which appeared in areas conquered by the Crusaders, and often executed by Western painters who adopted the tastes and the techniques of locally flourishing Eastern Christianity...
...This popularity leads to an ever increasing marketing of innumerable icons of very relative historical or artistic quality, and to the appearance of books with little educational value...
...Everywhere, however, the emi- nent competence of all the authors makes this publication really exemplary...
Vol. 110 • April 1983 • No. 8
