rules regarding icons - dont wish to offend

Lily76_

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i love the Orthodox Christian art would love to get some but i dont know where i can get them
at the moment i have a printer picture of a icon i wanted to ask if this is OK or is it a very big no no as i dont want to offend anyone i wanted to know where i can get an icon and also if what am doing is right as i said i dont wish to offend anyone

what are the rules regarding icons

Thank you
 

Tom 1

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i love the Orthodox Christian art would love to get some but i dont know where i can get them
at the moment i have a printer picture of a icon i wanted to ask if this is OK or is it a very big no no as i dont want to offend anyone i wanted to know where i can get an icon and also if what am doing is right as i said i dont wish to offend anyone

what are the rules regarding icons

Thank you


Are there rules on this? I read something in another post about the genuine art of making icons, which I don’t know anything about but which apparently has its own rules and standards, as opposed to cheap knock offs,so it may be worth looking into that if you want to get the genuine article.
 
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Catherineanne

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i love the Orthodox Christian art would love to get some but i dont know where i can get them
at the moment i have a printer picture of a icon i wanted to ask if this is OK or is it a very big no no as i dont want to offend anyone i wanted to know where i can get an icon and also if what am doing is right as i said i dont wish to offend anyone

what are the rules regarding icons

Thank you

Not Orthodox comment.

Aiui a printed image of an icon is fine. Hand painted icons can be expensive so most Orthodox people will have printed ones.

You can get reasonably low cost icons from some Cathedral shops, or from here:

The Shrine Shop of Our Lady Walsingham

Alternatively you can buy hand painted icons. There are a few icon painters around, so you could also commission a favourite saint for yourself. But perhaps that is for the future.
 
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Catherineanne

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Are there rules on this? I read something in another post about the genuine art of making icons, which I don’t know anything about but which apparently has its own rules and standards, as opposed to cheap knock offs,so it may be worth looking into that if you want to get the genuine article.

It really depends how precious you want to get. Strictly speaking Orthodox icons are supposed to be painted on wood, using egg tempera paint. They are painted by trained painters (which they call writers) after years of practice. But if you look at Orthodox history you will find icons in all sorts of media, including mosaic, statues, wood, and these days postcards.

All sorts of people paint icons in Orthodox style, from a wide range of different churches. They may have the authentic materials, but they don't have the Orthodox baptism or background. Does it make a difference to the icons? Who knows. Perhaps someone Orthodox can comment on this one.

My own view is that if the intention is to use the icon for devotional purposes it really doesn't make very much difference what the icon is made from.

(I paint icons, but not using egg tempera or wood. Because Anglican.)
 
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Tom 1

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It really depends how precious you want to get. Strictly speaking Orthodox icons are supposed to be painted on wood, using egg tempera paint. They are painted by trained painters (which they call writers) after years of practice. But if you look at Orthodox history you will find icons in all sorts of media, including mosaic, statues, wood, and these days postcards.

All sorts of people paint icons in Orthodox style, from a wide range of different churches. They may have the authentic materials, but they don't have the Orthodox baptism or background. Does it make a difference to the icons? Who knows. Perhaps someone Orthodox can comment on this one.

My own view is that if the intention is to use the icon for devotional purposes it really doesn't make very much difference what the icon is made from.

(I paint icons, but not using egg tempera or wood. Because Anglican.)

Thanks for the info. Btw do you happen to know anything about Voronetzi blue, the colour used in some frescoes in Romanian churches?
 
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Catherineanne

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Catherineanne

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Thanks for the info. Btw do you happen to know anything about Voronetzi blue, the colour used in some frescoes in Romanian churches?

I am afraid not, other than the general awareness of it as a lovely colour.

Traditionally blue was always the most expensive colour to use, because it derived from lapis lazuli which had to be brought overland from Afghanistan. But it doesn't look as if Voronetzi uses lapis.
 
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Tom 1

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I am afraid not, other than the general awareness of it as a lovely colour.

Traditionally blue was always the most expensive colour to use, because it derived from lapis lazuli which had to be brought overland from Afghanistan. But it doesn't look as if Vornetzi uses lapis.

Ok, thanks
 
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Anhelyna

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Lily - you could try contacting Katherine - she lives in Edinburgh

Products

She may well have some prints or be able to help you get some you can afford. A lot of Iconographers are finding their work is 'stolen' and cheap prints are made and sold by other people and the person who originally painted the Icon receives no recompense for all their work
 
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Tom 1

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You may know more; what can you say about this colour?

Just that it’s unique and that apparently analysis has not yet identified what gives it its particular hue. I visited a few monasteries in Bucovina years ago and it was just something that stuck in my mind. Bucovina is an area in Northeast Romania where this colour was used in monastery frescoes
 
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I would also commend Mull Monastery as a worthy cause. Though to be honest, the style of iconography that comes from there doesn't appeal to me personally.

There are no special rules against having a printed icon as opposed to a hand painted one, except as Anhelyna mentioned you would not want to be stealing images. I need to look for the link (it's here in some iconography threads) but at least one of our TAW members sells her icons in other media through Zazzle, which I've bought - such as printed on a card.

There are MANY rules for how they are created, from the colors used, positions of face, hands, etc, Details of clothing, items pictured, and the features and how they relate in size, distance. There are prayers and preparation. Materials are slightly more varying, depending on the tradition in which one is trained. But everything about creating them is precise. They are not simply artistic expression.

Icons should be treated with some measure of respect. You don't carry them in your back pocket so that you end up sitting on them. Most people if they drop one to the floor will retrieve it and kiss it. Of course you don't leave them lying on the ground or dispose of them in the trash. Normally in our jurisdiction we have the icons blessed - usually keeping them in the altar in the Holy Table for at least 40 days, and the priest blesses them. So they are treated the same as any other blessed object (as listed above). If they become badly damaged and need to be disposed of, they can be burned, buried, or given to the Church to dispose of them. But people will often use the same rules they would for respecting the Holy Scriptures, or a baptismal cross, etc.
 
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Tom 1

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You may know more; what can you say about this colour?

It’s more a case of not knowing the field so not knowing how to evaluate any evidence about it, i.e it’s uniqueness, so I was just curious if it was something you knew about, being an icon painter. There is a minor tendency in Romanian culture to claim to be the first to have done this or that in a particular area so I was thinking about it in those terms as well as just general curiosity.
 
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Catherineanne

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It’s more a case of not knowing the field so not knowing how to evaluate any evidence about it, i.e it’s uniqueness, so I was just curious if it was something you knew about, being an icon painter. There is a minor tendency in Romanian culture to claim to be the first to have done this or that in a particular area so I was thinking about it in those terms as well as just general curiosity.

Well I both am and am not an icon painter. It depends how tightly you draw that particular line.

I love that colour; it looks something like cerulean blue.

Pigments through the Ages - Overview - Cerulean blue
 
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