Икона и иконопочитание в православии

In Orthodox piety, a prominent place is occupied by the veneration of holy icons with images of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Most Holy Theotokos, angels and saints (this also includes the holy cross and the holy gospel). Orthodox churches inside are covered with paintings and richly decorated with icons, both in the so-called. the iconostasis (the partition separating the altar from the church), and on the walls. These images are usually made on boards or on a flat surface; statues and sculptural images in general, unlike the West, are a rare exception in Orthodoxy. Canonically, the veneration of icons is based on the resolution of the VII Ecumenical Council, which is recognized as having indisputable force for the Church. It also has its basis in religious psychology, so deep that for the Orthodox, an icon is an essential necessity for piety. In the flourishing times of Orthodoxy, equally in Byzantium and in Russia, icons not only filled churches, but they were placed in houses, on streets, squares, and in public places. For an Orthodox person, a home without an icon gives the impression of uncleanness and emptiness. When traveling, when visiting new places, an Orthodox Christian has an icon, before which he prays, just as he wears a small cross on his chest, first placed at baptism. The icon gives a feeling of the tactile presence of God. This is difficult for Westerners to understand, even in Catholicism, despite the fact that it recognizes the veneration of icons, especially in Protestantism, in which the tradition of iconoclasm lives and only the image of the cross is maintained. Icon veneration is often mistaken for idolatry, and, of course, they do not take the trouble to clearly define what is meant by this. For its existence, the icon presupposes the depiction of God in man, who, by his creation, has the image of God (Gen. 1:26), although obscured by original sin. But the Lord Jesus Christ, having accepted human nature, revealed a true man in His sinless humanity. God remains indescribable in His supermundane existence, but in His revelation to man He has an image and can be described. Otherwise, His revelation itself would not have taken place 31. In particular, according to what has been said, the events of the earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ are depictable, as they are depicted in words in the Holy Gospel, which in this sense is nothing more than a verbal icon of Christ. Paintings of religious content, depicting evangelical events, do not meet with fundamental objections in the Protestant world. They are used here - whether for the purposes of teaching, remembrance or greater religious comprehension - they are used in the same way as the sacred texts that adorn the walls of the church and are also nothing more than verbal icons. Paintings (frescoes) of various contents that cover the walls of the church and, in essence, icons that have no meaning, have such a commemorative meaning in Orthodoxy. An icon is not just a sacred image, but also something more than an image. According to the belief of Orthodoxy, an icon is a place of grace-filled presence, as if the appearance of Christ (and then the Mother of God, saints, and in general those who are depicted on the icon), for prayer to Him. This appearance of Christ in His image to hear prayer to Him does not make the very board and paints that are necessary for the image, which constitute its matter, belonging to the body of Christ. In this sense, the icon is completely opposite to the Eucharist, where there is no image of Christ, but Christ is mysteriously present in the substance of His body and blood, presenting them for communion. The Orthodox prays before the icon of Christ, as before Christ himself, standing before him in His icon, but the icon itself, the place of this presence, remains only a thing and does not at all become an idol or a fetish. The need to have an icon with you and in front of you stems from the concreteness of religious feeling, which is not satisfied with spiritual contemplation alone, but also seeks immediate, tactile intimacy, as is natural for a person consisting of soul and body. The Lord teaches man communication with Himself by eating His body and blood, i.e. sensually and tactilely. And we have a similar spiritual-tactile communication in holy icons, despite all the profound difference between the icon and the Holy Eucharist. The veneration of holy icons is based, therefore, not only on the very content of the persons or events depicted on them, but also on faith in this gracious presence, which is given by the Church by the power of the consecration of the icon. In the consecration of an icon, we have a sacred rite, which establishes precisely the connection between the prototype and the image, the depicted and the image. Through consecration in the icon of Christ, a mysterious meeting of the person praying with Christ occurs. And this also applies to the icon of the Mother of God and the saints, who in their icons seem to continue their life on earth in their appearances (the veneration of holy relics also has a similar meaning). By the power of this grace-filled presence, help can be given through the icon, as if from those depicted on it themselves, and, in this sense, in principle, anyone who has received its power, i.e. Once consecrated, the icon is miraculous. However, miraculous, in the proper sense, are revered icons that in one way or another have demonstrated themselves to be miracle-working and demonstrate their power with special accessibility and tangibility. The number of icons of the Mother of God revered as miraculous is especially significant. According to the belief of the Church, the Most Holy Mother of God, to whom the entire human race, or the entire Church, was adopted in the person of the Apostle John the Theologian, does not leave the world in Her Dormition, and being in heaven, She at the same time lives the life of our world, suffers from its illnesses and cries with its tears, intercedes for it with Her prayers. That is why She reveals Herself to the world in Her miraculous icons, which preserve Her tangible trace on earth. (This faith in Orthodoxy is common with Catholicism). The icons have as their subject the image of Christ, and in connection with Him even the Holy Trinity (in particular, in the form of the appearance of three angels to Abraham at the oak of Mamre), the Mother of God, angels and saints. The content of these icons is not limited to simple images, but can also include various events from the life of Christ (icons of holidays), or sometimes express very complex dogmatic ideas (for example, various icons of St. Sophia, the Wisdom of God, cosmic icons of the Mother of God, etc.). What is the origin of such icons? Partly it is determined by the direct data of the Word of God, partly by theological considerations (and in this sense relates to pictorial scholasticism), partly contains a spiritual vision that is revealed to the viewer of God, and at the same time to the icon painter 32. And, as such, being accepted by the Church through the icon, it becomes a new revelation, which is a source for theology - thus, iconographic theology arises (as, for example, in the question of Sophia, the Wisdom of God). In general, an icon is a special type of church tradition, in colors and images, along with oral, written, monumental. The production of icons, which the craft has mastered for mass demand, in its origins is a religious creativity, and the Church glorifies some saints precisely as icon painters (at the head of this series, tradition places the Evangelist Luke, who painted the icon of the Mother of God). These are the greatest Russian icon masters, two friends: St. Andrei Rublev and Dionysius, both monks. However, a rare exception is that their names turn out to be known; usually the icons are as nameless as the Gothic cathedrals in the West. Of course, true visions and theological contemplations in icons are exceptions in the series of mass icon painting, but these exceptions become the original for making copies, icon “ascetics”. Religious contemplation in the icon is given to the master, clothed in images, colors and forms. This is a revelation in artistic images, not abstract ideas, but concrete forms. That is why the symbolism of colors, the rhythm of lines, and the coherence of the composition are so important in icon painting. Visions of the spiritual world are clothed in artistic form, in which the language of colors (colors: gold, silver, blue, indigo, green, purple, etc.) and lines acquires exceptional importance, with the greatest economy of artistic means. Fundamentally, everything in an icon is symbolic and has its own meaning: not only the content of what is depicted, but also the form and colors. This knowledge and storage of the symbolism of the icon consists of the tradition of icon painting, which originates from time immemorial, perhaps also from pre-Christian antiquity and Egypt and Hellas, which were inherited by Christian Byzantium. In this way, an iconographic canon arises, which is preserved with the greatest purity in ancient icons. In the history of icons, the special merit of the Russian Old Believers should be noted, which revealed them to the world as unattainable peaks of art, capable of standing next to the greatest works of world art 33. Of course, this canon has only a general guiding value, and it not only leaves room for personal inspiration and creativity (within certain limits insensitively changing it), but even presupposes it. Therefore, there is no such absolute canon for the icon, which is professed by the Old Believers. Thus, they doom icon painting to complete immobility and to its death as the art from which it was born and which it must remain. On the contrary, finding a basis in tradition and developing it, the icon has its own life in modern art, and this art has a great and wonderful future. However, art does not slave to the canon as an external law, but freely accepts it as ancient knowledge and inner truth. Icon painting is a special branch of symbolic art, but it is not only art, but also more than art, it is a vision of God and knowledge of God, giving artistic evidence of itself. For its true implementation, it requires the combination in one person of an artist and a religious contemplative theologian. Art alone is powerless to create an icon, just like theology alone. Therefore, creative icon painting is the most difficult and rare art, as it requires the combination of these two, also rare, gifts. But the achievements and revelations of icon painting surpass in their power both speculative theology and non-religious art. Icon painting testifies to the other world and its images; it does not prove, but shows, does not force with arguments, but convinces and conquers with self-evidence. A true creative icon is the appearance of Christ, the Mother of God, angels, saints, heaven, here on earth. Therefore, in it art is generally given the highest service that can exist - to proclaim the glory of God. The Russian soul and Russian art are fraught with new revelations, new creativity of the icon, of whom we are already contemporaries. Icon painting, as an art, has its own distinctive features, which are generally determined by its task of testifying to the other world. Therefore, it is, first of all, alien to that naturalism and even simply natural realism, which became dominant in Western art of the Renaissance. Iconography does not allow sensuality in images that remain formal, abstract, schematic, consisting of one form and color. She seeks to convey not a face, but a face. It is alien to impressionism, but closer to decorativeness with clear forms and certain colors. Therefore, the icon does not even know three dimensions, has no depth, but is content, following ancient Egyptian icon painting, with a flat image with reverse perspective, and this already achieves the elimination of sensuality and the dominance of form and color with their symbolism. This introduces strict and high asceticism into the most artistic resources of icon painting, and the path to sensuality and carnal lust is cut off in advance. Icon painting is strict, serious and can seem dry, just as high and pure art inevitably seems to the sons of the flesh. The artistic homeland of the icon is ancient Egypt (in particular, funeral portraits of the Hellenistic era). Byzantium, the heir and successor of Hellas, is the birthplace of Christian icon painting, where it had several periods of prosperity. From here, icon painting moved to the Balkan countries and Russia, where it reached its highest development by the 15th century in Moscow and Novgorod. The greatest Russian icon painter is St. Andrei Rublev and master Dionysius (Moscow, 15th century). The question of the relationship between Western, Italian and Russian icon painting is still the subject of scientific debate. The influence of the West is undeniably manifested in Russian icon painting in the era of beginning decline from the 16th century and finds a gifted exponent in Simon Ushakov (Moscow, 17th century). In the XVIII-XIX centuries. the influence of Western tastes on Russian art acts in a downward manner, introducing into it features of naturalism and amateurism, in the loss of its own style, along with handicrafts, and only recently has the understanding of the nature of icon painting as an art awakened again, and with it the consciousness of its true high tasks has awakened, promising a new flowering of it. In the icon, art becomes connected with the Church, serves the Church, and this connection is not only external, but internal. Culture and cult are revealed in their unity, which is the original, primordial, and together with the final goal of human history. For the dogmatic foundations of icon veneration, see my work: Icon and icon veneration, 1930. In Western iconography, the work of Beato Angelico is most marked by the nature of visions. From this artistic canon, which is contained in the monuments of icon art themselves, one must distinguish the so-called. the original, which indicates with what features various saints should be painted. The latter is more of a spiritual censorship for icons.