ICONS AND SAINTS OF THE EASTERN ORTHODOX

An icon (from the Greek word eikon, image) is a wooden panel painting of a holy person or scene from Orthodox Christianity, the reli gion of the Byzantine Empire that is practiced today mainly in Greece and Russia. It was believed that these works acted as intermed iaries between worshipers and the holy personages they depicted. Their pictorial language is stylized and primarily symbolic, rather than literal and narrative. Indeed, every attitude, pose, and colour depicted in an icon has a precise meaning, and their painters - usually...[Read more]