Iconography

Iconography developed in early Christian times, generally originating out of Graeco-Roman portrait panels.  The encaustic method was used in the earliest examples of these sacred images.  A distinct style characterizes these images, elongated narrow noses, large eyes and arched brows, small mouth.  The folds in garments are exaggerated into geometric patterns.  The facial expressions are without emotion, or even a little melancholy.  The space is flat, the perspective is inverse, the light source originates from within, peculiarly creating a total overall space that is neither flat nor spacial but oddly transparent, a trait unique to these sacred images.  The icon gives us a glimpse into the mystical, heavenly realm, marking the icon as the “window into heaven.”

"The inner rhythm of the iconographic tradition keeps closely in step with the liturgy, which is our living experience of the transcendent, and accompanies our soaring thoughts, then surpasses them, to reveal what is hidden and express what can not be uttered." - taken from Orthodoxy, by Paul Evdokimov