Paideía & Praxís - C1: Old Testament Icons

Paideía & Praxís

Cycle 1: Icon Study

Old Testament, The Trinity, Patriarchs, & Prophets

*C1 Icon Study Packet with links, HERE, & Hi-Res Prints (for printing), HERE

TERM 1 Icons

Week 1:

The Creation of Man and the Expulsion from Earthly Paradise [Image]

*Rd. Icons and Saints (Tradigo) pp. 62-63

Take Note of:

Christ (see IC XC in red above his halo), seated on a throne forming Adam with his hands as an archangel looks on (top left).
Adam and Eve in royal vestments, befitting of their rank, being blessed by Christ on high.
The snake whispering to Eve.
The archangel with a sword driving Adam and Eve from the circle of Paradise, naked because they have lost their royal standing.
The red cherubim with the flaming sword, guarding the entrance to Paradise.
Adam and Eve outside the circle (bottom right), sitting in darkness, wearing the tunics God has sewn for them.

Week 2:

The Creation of

Plants (16 c., Sucevița

Monastery, Romania) [Image]

Sucevița Monastery is a 16th-century Romanian Orthodox monastery in the historic region of Moldavia. Its church is famous for its extensive exterior frescoes, which cover the walls with scenes from Scripture and the lives of the saints.

Take Note of:

Christ as Logos creating the plants and vegetation on the third day of creation
Rich greens, reds, blues, and golds
Christ blessing creation:
SEE the traditional blessing posture with thumb and last two fingers touching to symbolize the Holy Trinity, while index and middle fingers point upward to signify His dual nature (fully God and fully Man)
The plants as ordered, living, beautiful, and purposeful, rather than merely as background scenery
Historically, the nuns and local painters of these icons and scenes extracted natural pigments and dyes directly from local plants, minerals, and insects to achieve the long-lasting, brilliant colors

Read & Watch: Sucevița Monastery, Romania

Week 3:

Righteous Noah (16 c. fresco by Theophanes the Cretan (Mount Athos) [Image]

Located in the Stavronikita Monastery, Mount Athos. Stavronikita is the most recently built monastery on Mount Athos. It is also the smallest monastery among the twenty monasteries and is dedicated to St. Nicholas.

Take Note of:

Noah as an elderly man with a long, flowing grey beard and wavy hair, wearing traditional biblical robes and a golden halo.
The curved, boat-shaped structure representing the Ark, which in some monastic traditions is also linked visually to the wooden semantron (a sacred sounding board used to call monks to prayer).
- Listen to/watch a semantron here
The title inscription reads ПРАОТЕЦ НОЙ — Praotets Noy/Noi — “Forefather Noah,” and his secondary title, in smaller letters at right, is Правед[ный], Pravednuiy — “the Righteous.”

Week 4:

The Hospitality of Abraham [Image]

*Rd. Icons and Saints (Tradigo) pp. 72

Take Note of:

Abraham and Sarah lean forward behind the two angels, their attitude expressing humility and servitude.
The inscription between the two oaks of Mamre reads: “The appearance of the life-principal Trinity in Abraham’s tent.”
The figure of the central angel dominates, andthe use of black underscores God’s unknowable nature.
The table is richly set with loaves, root vegetables, and a calf’s head in a dish.
This icon is typical of the Cretan school, which was influenced by the late-Byzantine Palaiologan style

Week 5:

Old Testament Trinity with Scenes from Genesis (ca. 1580-1580, Russia) [Image]

*Rd. Icons and Saints (Tradigo) pp. 71

Located in Solvychegodsk, Russia, in the Museum of History, this icon expands the theological focus of Andrei Rublev’s famous Trinity model by re-incorporating the narrative details of Abraham and Sarah’s encounter from Genesis 18.

Take Note of:

The angel announces the incredulous Sarah, who is already elderly, that she will bear a son, Isaac
Abraham offers food and receives the angels’ blessing
The servant’s slaughter of the animal foreshadows the sacrifice of Issac
The diagonal table creates a rising movement, from Sarah on the bottom right, to the tree on the mountain on the upper left

Week 6:

Three Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob [Image]

*Rd. Icons and Saints (Tradigo) pp. 64

Take Note of:

The Holy Forefathers (Patriarchs) in Paradise—specifically Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob holding the souls of the righteous in their bosoms (see the crowd of children in the background)
How this represents man’s condition after death--to be in Abraham’s bosom means to be saved
The origin in the New Testament parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, (Luke 16)
In the upper background is a river of fire that represents the region of torment separated from Paradise
God the Father as “Lord Sabaoth” in a circle at the top, and in the side borders are name-saint of members of the family that originally owned this icon. At left is Venerable nun Evdokia (Eudocia), and at right the very popular female martyr Paraskovi (Parasceva)

Week 7:

The Creation and the Fall [Image]

*Rd. Icons and Saints (Tradigo) pp. 62

Fragment of an iconostasis deacon’s door, mid-17th c.

Take Note of:

The 4 scenes when looking at the full panel:
- 1. The Bosom of Abraham
- 2. The Creation of Adam & Eve
- 3. The Expulsion from Paradise
- 4. The Contempla
1. Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob seated in Paradise
2. Adam being formed on the left and Eve being formed from Adam's side at the center
3. An angel with a fiery or green branch drives Adam and Eve from the gates of Paradise
3. A seraphim guards the gate
4. A burial bier or open coffin containing a skeletal or shrouded human form, flanked by mourning monastics
4. Monks or ascetics stand around the tomb in silent contemplation, reflecting on vanity, repentance, and the fleeting nature of earthly life