Icon writing

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Deltadeliquent

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Is there any unofficial bias against icons written by women?
Any official bias?
 
No clue, but I will say there is an excellent female iconographer at Ballintubber Abbey (Ballintubber Hermitage) in County Mayo, Ireland.
 
Absolutely not. That business about “writing” icons is mostly hogwash. Icons are painted.
 
PatrickC said:
Absolutely not. That business about “writing” icons is mostly hogwash. Icons are painted.
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“Writing” icons is a term used by iconographers for the method by which they pray and produce (PAINT) the icons.
 
PatrickC said:
Absolutely not. That business about “writing” icons is mostly hogwash. Icons are painted.
Click to expand...
As pianistclare said, writing pertains to the environment of prayer used in their production, as opposed to a piece of art produced for aesthetic purposes. Surely you didn’t mean to offend the Byzantine tradition by calling a very sacred process “hogwash” :). That being said, the term “writing” an icon is a newer term - pertaining to the verb grapho/grapso/egrapsa/egrap… I forget my principle parts in Greek, but anyway, you’re correct in saying the verb means to both write and draw (as the English cognates demonstrate).

But relevant to the topic, I don’t know of this biased. There are very few who produce Syriac-style icons and one of them, much better than her mentor I will say, is a Maronite nun. I attended her PhD dissertation in Kaslik and she presented an icon she had made of Shmooni and her sons - to borrow a Byzantine phrase, it was a true “window to heaven.”
 
pianistclare said:
“Writing” icons is a term used by iconographers for the method by which they pray and produce (PAINT) the icons.
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I don’t have the specifics but I had many a conversation about this years ago. The use of the term was popularized years back by an Anglican if memory serves me. The insistence that icons are “written” was based on a literal translation of the Greek term, which was unnecessarily imbued with an imagined symbolism. Its quite normal to simply say an icon is “painted”, and actually sounds less grandiose and pretentious, besides being more correct.
 
MorEphrem said:
As pianistclare said, writing pertains to the environment of prayer used in their production, as opposed to a piece of art produced for aesthetic purposes. Surely you didn’t mean to offend the Byzantine tradition by calling a very sacred process “hogwash” :).

But relevant to the topic, I don’t know of this biased. There are very few who produce Syriac-style icons and one of them, much better than her mentor I will say, is a Maronite nun. I attended her PhD dissertation in Kaslik and she presented an icon she had made of Shmooni and her sons - to borrow a Byzantine phrase, it was a true “window to heaven.”
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I’m actually of the Byzantine tradition and paint icons myself. I know it’s become a popular folk tradition, but it’s not quite true.
 
You’ll also find people who are adamant that icons need not be blessed or even should not be blessed. You’ll also find that it’s the norm in the Greek tradition to leave the icon on the altar for 40 day while Russians may just perform a simple blessing. Its not necessarily wrong to say that an icon is “written” but it’s a bit of a novelty, in truth.
 
PatrickC said:
You’ll also find people who are adamant that icons need not be blessed or even should not be blessed. You’ll also find that it’s the norm in the Greek tradition to leave the icon on the altar for 40 day while Russians may just perform a simple blessing. Its not necessarily wrong to say that an icon is “written” but it’s a bit of a novelty, in truth.
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Okay, I see what you’re saying now. I misinterpreted your initial post, my fault. There are some people who wonder into this forum who just seek to blast our traditions, my apologies for the misunderstanding.

But I see what you’re saying, I’ve read before that the idea of writing an icon is a singularly English idiom that’s become popular amongst converts in the US like those of the OCA. However, interesting you should bring up the Byzantine tradition of leaving an icon by the altar for a time period - in the Syriac tradition we don’t really have any parallel. We could ask a priest to bless it but we don’t have a standardized form of formally blessing it.
 
MorEphrem said:
Okay, I see what you’re saying now. I misinterpreted your initial post, my fault. There are some people who wonder into this forum who just seek to blast our traditions, my apologies for the misunderstanding.

But I see what you’re saying, I’ve read before that the idea of writing an icon is a singularly English idiom that’s become popular amongst converts in the US like those of the OCA. However, interesting you should bring up the Byzantine tradition of leaving an icon by the altar for a time period - in the Syriac tradition we don’t really have any parallel. We could ask a priest to bless it but we don’t have a standardized form of formally blessing it.
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No problem, my apologies if I came off brash. I’ve also seen it left on the altar for one liturgy. There seems to be plenty of variation and customs when it comes to iconography, which is great.
 
Gosh!
I used the word “write” believing it was one of greater respect than “paint”.
No offence to anyone was intended.
I am a woman interested in painting icons and was simply wondering if a traditionalist was given a choice between an icon by a man or a woman, would the man’s icon be preferred.
Sounds like it makes no difference in the real world.
Thanks for the replies.
 
What a wonderful link!
Thanks. Now I can’t wait to peruse the rest of the site.
CAF is a great way to link up to interesting magazines and sites I would otherwise never have found.
 
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