symbolic-expressive connotations of colour in iconostasis painting

UNIVERSITY OF ART AND DESIGN CLUJ-NAPOCA
FACULTY OF FINE ARTS
- DOCTORAL THESIS -
SYMBOLIC-EXPRESSIVE
CONNOTATIONS OF COLOUR IN
ICONOSTASIS PAINTING
- SUMMARY-
Scientific coordinator:
Prof. Univ. Dr. Radu Solovăstru
PhD Candidate,
Victoria Alina Man (Grădinar)
Cluj-Napoca 2012

CHAPTER I
GENESIS AND EVOLUTION OF ICONOSTASIS AS PART OF
THE ORTHODOX CULT – HISTORIOGRAPHIC ASPECTS
1.1. Genesis
1.2. The evolution of iconostasis in the Balkans, space outside Byzantium
1.3. Iconostasis, integral part of the place of worship
1.1. Every time entering an orthodox church, the viewer is marked by the encounter
with the iconostasis, this symphony of icons in front of which Christians stop for
meditation and communion with the characters in the icons. Iconostasis or the temple
is one of the most important constituents inside an orthodox church. Although it
appeared rather late, iconostasis earned its place and developed naturally without
being the object of some ecclesial decision.
For the purpose of presenting the genesis and evolution of iconostasis, we will
first analyze the word „icon”= in Greek aghiografia, eikon and the word “iconostasis”
composed by two parts: Gr. eikon = “face, image” and stasis =”supporting, to
support”. We can also notice that the synonyms of iconostasis are: Holy Veil (n.t. in
Romanian –catapeteasmă) from the Gr. katapetasma = “unfolded veil”, which has a
biblical origin and designates the curtain that separated the Holly from the Holly of
Hollies in the old Jewish temples, and temple from the Gr. templon = ,”holly place”,
,,temple” and front (n.t. in Romanian fruntar) from the Lat. frontale= ,,in front, from
the front”, term encountered especially in Transylvania 1 . Theologians and specialists
in the field consider that the term iconostasis accurately describes “the iconographic
complex that covers the Christian altar; but we frequently name it temple – not only to
distinguish it from the tetrapod - iconostasis - but also because this word has become
very frequently used in Romania, in the religious language and also in the non-
religious one” 2 .
1 The word fruntar denotes the entire iconostasis and we find it mainly in the Maramures area. To
support this statement Ene Branişte says that: “by association with the temple, part of the human face,
we also use the word fruntar , frontal in Transylvania, because for the viewer in the nave the Holy Veil
is like the temple, or the forehead of the human face”. See the term catapeteasmă,(Holy Veil) at Ene
Branişte, Ecaterina Branişte, Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Religious Knowledge, Diecezană Publishing
House, Caransebeş, 2001, pp. 89-90.
2 Valeriu Anania, The Skies of Olt, second edition, Pro Publishing House, Bucharest, 1998, p. 208.,

The reason for the appearance of these cancelli (kiklidis) = “fence” as the
Greeks named them had above all a practical purpose – for the Christian gathering
not to disturb the priests performing liturgy. Due to this fact, in the beginnings, the
priests were positioned around the altar; the Christians were standing on several rows,
behind them. Soon the latter were separated from the first by a short balustrade which
resulted in the temple, in the East, in Catalonia and in another several regions. When
the believers became more and more numerous, the altar was moved at the end of the
monument where it is currently placed” 3 .
From what we have seen we can notice that in the incipient period of
Christianity and in the pre-iconoclastic period there were three forms of separation or
enclosure of the altar from the nave. 1. the curtain 2. the enclosure and 3. the grid,
that were divided in half by a “door” that allowed access to the altar and which was
exclusively reserved for the clerics. In its incipient stage the iconostasis had in some
parts a simple form and was only around a meter high and a more complex one in the
big churches in Constantinople, the situation remaining as such until the IXth century
after the triumph of orthodoxy (843) and even later in byzantine churches.
1.2. In the Greek and the Romanian cultures this separating wall with icons
was named temple and the term iconostasis started to be used especially beginning
with the XIVth century in the Slavic cultures, mostly in the Russian one, afterwards
being taken by the Romanians too when iconostasis was evolving in the new wood
churches and even more in those built out of bricks.
In Scythia Minor, today’s Dobruja, palaeo-Christian basilicas were discovered
and they were protecting the “altar that was separated by the nave through a marble
cancelli” 4 , which proves the existence of the iconostasis. The iconostasis of the
churches back then, of basilical type in the IIIrd and IVth centuries completes the
simple architecture and decorates the place of worship „with a wooden grid created in
the finest way so as to offer the viewers the most beautiful sight” 5 and which will
develop over the centuries into what iconostasis is today.
3
I. D. Ştefănescu, The Iconography of the Romanian Byzantine Art and Feudal Painting, Meridiane
Publishing House, Bucharest, 1973, p. 54.
4
Emilian Popescu, About the Material Status of Churches in Scythia Minor in the Proto-byzantine
Era (IV-V centuries), in the publication “Theological Studies”, year XLII, no. 3, 1990 p. 81.
5
Eusebiu de Cezareea, History of the Church, Works, part I, in P.S.B, vol. 13, translation and
comments- pr. prof. T. Bodogae, Publishing House of the Biblical and Mission Institute of the
Romanian Orthodox Church, Bucharest, 1987, p. 351.

The current shape was created in time because in the early period it was not
very complex, sometimes only displayed the Saviour’s and Saint Mary’s icons, then
later it developed into a simple enclosure (cancelli), with wooden panels with
religious paintings or a curtain. In the Serbian churches the icons replaced the curtains
rather late, almost in the XIVth century, while in Byzantium there is proof attesting
the existence of iconostases with a row of icons even as early as the XIIth century 6 .
The unitary iconostasis structure with several rows of icons of the XIVth and
XVIth century was later adopted on the territory of the Big Moscow Principality 7 ,
from where it evolved and reached Europe and Byzantine Italy. This morphology has
less practical functions, but more theological and ecclesiastic ones, of high spiritual
and artistic beauty. 8
1.3. It is a known fact that in the Orthodox Church the altar is always
separated by the nave through a continuous wall made out of icons and called
iconostasis 9 . For the Orthodox Church giving up the iconostasis “means to remove
one of the essential characteristics of the byzantine-orthodox cult and style, one which
offers it a mark of individuality.
Iconostasis becomes an organic part of tradition, being a visual theology in the
East, the land of icons, where its evolution is marked by three periods: the Justinian
era, when iconography tended to be grandiose and monumental, then the byzantine
renaissance in the time of the Macedonian and Komnenian dynasty (Xth – XIIth
century) period when the intensity of faces was characterised by measurability and the
adaptation to the human scale, and the third period, the golden age of the icon, the
XIVth century, the renaissance under the Paleologi 10 .
We should notice that until the iconoclasm, painting appears especially in the
altar’s concha and in the central dome and less frequently we can see scenes on other
surfaces in the church. After the iconoclastic dispute, the place of the imperial icons
6 Ibid., p. 54
7 In this period the iconographic system was enriched by a series of complementary registers, those of
the Patriarchs, the Cherubs, the Passion, the Apostles.
8 Vasile DrăguŃ, Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Romanian Medieval Art, Bucharest, 2000, p. 250-252.
9 This separating wall filled with icons is “like a screen that separates the divine world from the human
one, the iconostasis uniting at the same the two worlds into a whole, in a representation that reflects a
state of the Universe where the being reconciles with God and with himself. Placed at the border
between the divine and the human, it reveals through images in the most complete manner the ways to
this reconciliation”. Acc. to Leonid Uspensky, Vladimir Lossky, quoted work., p. 92.
10 Paul Evdochimov, The Art of the Icon, a Theology of Beauty, translation by Grigore Moga and Petru
Moga, Meridiane Publidhing House, Bucharest, 1993, p.146.

and the extension of painting in the church became definitive. The famous theologian
Leonid Uspenky states that the Deisis was known as early as the VIIth century.
Starting with the XVth century the iconostasis took its definitive form, as we
can see it today; the icon with the “Annunciation” will occupy a central place, on the
imperial doors named The Beautiful Gate (the doors of the Holy Altar), term taken
from the New Testament (Acts 3, 2) and there are also two smaller doors – one in the
north and one in the south, also named Deacon’s doors.
In the first register the most important icons, named imperial are: to the south
the icon of Jesus Christ and to the north Mother Mary and the Child. In this register,
on the side of the Deacon’s doors we can also notice the icon of John the Baptist or
that of Saint Nicholas and the icon representing the church’s patron saint. On the
Deacon’s doors, according to the byzantine painting hermeneia, Gabriel the
Archangel or Deacon Laurence is painted and on the second door – Michael the
Archangel or Archdeacon Stephen. The north Deacon’s door leads to the Altar of
Proskomedia and the south one to the Diakonikon.
To conclude, the iconostasis had a long way to develop into what we know it
to be today, through complex historical and cultural contexts, it has been and
continues to be an important part in an orthodox place of worship, it belongs to the
church’s interior and it entails the responsibility of its creators, because this “forehead
of the face” mediates the meeting of believers with Jesus Christ and the saints during
the religious services in the church.
CHAPTER II
AESTHETIC EXPRESSIVITY AND SYMBOLIC FUNCTION IN THE
ICONOSTASIS CHROMATIC
2.1 Aesthetic expressivity of the iconostasis
2.2 Beauty of the face
2.3 The icon - aesthetic creation
2.1. By the iconic compositions, specific components, the iconostasis
iconography highlights the aesthetic echo of the entire painting ensemble. It sums up
all the icon’s touches, attributes and traits specific to the icon through the particular

and original characteristics belonging to their unique coloration, always aiming to the
state of prototype.
The artistic expression 11 is imposed through colours and lines, i.e. through
realizing some artistic images of an aesthetic object to which significant virtues are
assigned in the communication between the artist and the viewer. This can be
transfigured also in an iconic creation made from material elements. By means of a
specific language the Christians assign spiritual values to the iconic creations which
are in fact object for the subject carrying “aesthetic values that need to characterize
icons....which can contribute to establishing the icon’s morphology.” 12 .
In order to understand its full significance, current research in the field of the
byzantine art of iconostasis imposes “a triple dimension: scientific knowledge, artistic
value and theological vision. If we neglect the theological element, the icon becomes
a historical document or monument carrying precious information for history or the
folklore, losing its spiritual substance. If we neglect the scientific element, we find
ourselves mastered by subjectivity, which prevents us from distinguishing the
essential from the auxiliary and thus we risk even to alter the transcendent truth the
icon meant to express. If we neglect the aesthetic element, undoubtedly we will not be
able to appreciate the icon appropriately” 13 .
The usage of icons in the cult has determined the church painters to promote
the aesthetics of the icon, i.e. the natural and artistic beauties of the face, “beauty
which is revealed in the icon through the connection between content and shape” 14 ,
and the aesthetic element is seen especially in the content, not in the form of
representation.
The aesthetic expressivity has been and continues to be over the centuries a
continuous approach, present in the contemporary iconography, because aesthetics
deals with beauty as a capital connotation conjugated with the painter’s artistry.
11
See the definition in Dictionary of General Aesthetics, Political Publishing House, Bucharest, 1972,
p. 120.
12
Giorgios Kordis, Hiperotipos. The Icon’s Theology according to the Holy Fathers, translation from
Greek by Mihai Coman, Cristina Costena Rogobete, edition supervised by Octavian Gordon, Byzantine
Publishing House, Bucharest, 2011, p.133.
13
Egon Sendler, The Icon of the unseen face. Elements of theology, aesthetics, technique, translation
from French by Ioana and Florin Caragiu; nun Ilie DoiniŃa Teodosia, Sophia Publishing House,
Bucharest, 2005, pp. 5-6.
14
Evanghelos D. Theodoru, The Theological Aesthetics of Icons and their Ecumenical Importance, in
the publication “Theological Studies”, second series, year L, 1998, no. 3-4, p.115.

2.2. Beauty as aesthetic side in the icon, distinguishes itself through the
harmony of all the elements and the proof of the aesthetic presence is the emotion
raised at the visual encounter with the icon, namely all those pure shapes and colours
that express themselves plastically and tell the human being “that only beauty is
indispensable, because without beauty there is nothing” 15 . Through the power of this
aesthetic element, beauty leads to a transfiguration of the intimate state as a
culmination of the inner self.
In theological vision the aesthetic dimensions contribute to the relation
between the icon face and the viewer’s sensibility so as to elicit in the latter’s
conscience the spiritual vision. Iconography, the Church’s language in images, keeps
and reveals the beauty for the “spiritual eyes” that are able to see the soul beauty of
the character portrayed in the icon.
The aesthetics of the icon is theological clarity, it is a necessity of the icon and
that is why this goal appears as a permanent concern for the artist who desires to
create „perfect beauty, endless beauty”.
The art of the icon emphasizes a beauty derived from rhythm, proportion and
symmetry. These are considered by iconographers traits of perfection, as perfection
epitomizes the expression of divinity that determines a dialogue between proportion
and harmony founded on the symmetry criterion.
That is why we generally state that the icon is seen because it speaks or
because the viewer (the Christian viewer) hears what the icon conveys and through its
artistic expression the icon reflects the essence of a reality that includes its essential
qualities such as emotional character, originality and accessibility.
2.3. Iconostases have been present in the church from the beginning of the
second millennium, churches built out of stone or wood, irrespective of their
architecture, sometimes modest, as we can still see today, but with exquisite
iconostases that completed and perfected the interior of the place of worship.
We can find references in the field of the icon’s formal-figurative
representation in „The Hermeneias”, which are for the iconographer rules or “norms
of the common law” that he needs to follow when making the icons, according to
secular tradition which “is not synonym to constraint, but to erudition” 16 . We can
15 Apud Paul Evdochimov, The Art of the Icon…, p. 38.
16 Nikolai M. Tarabukin, The Icon’s Meaning, translation and afterword by Vladimir Bulat; edition
supervised by Adrian Tănăsescu-Vlas, Sophia Publishing House, Bucharest, 2008, p. 127.

notice throughout history that at a certain moment tradition was not respected and
thus, these norms, or hermeneias, iconographic guidelines had to be established in
writing.
In the Balkans the iconostasis with two or three rows of icons appears rather
frequently with the cycle of the 12 holidays of the liturgical year on the architrave, as
well as The Great Deisis 17 , and later on The Last Supper in the middle. Each register
corresponds to certain periods in the church history and each of the characters painted
is connected to the image of Christ.
CHAPTER III
SYMBOLIC FUNCTION AND CHROMATICS OF ICONOSTASIS
3.1. Symbolic function
3.2. Chromatics of iconostasis
3.3. Colour – symbolic and aesthetic presence
3. 1. The iconostasis’ symbolic function and chromatics emphasized through
the drawing and the colour, by using precious materials that lead to the reflection of
the divine splendour, the colour perfects and transfigures by means of its symbolic
language. In order to understand the icon’s beauty, one needs to understand colours
which reveal symbols. Symbolic thinking determines the icon painter to speak,
namely to convey through the icon a symbolic effect, without which the icon’s gist
cannot be grasped.
The symbolism of colour, anchored in history for thousands of years, has
created a coded language in the art of the icon, an instrument for knowing the
portrayed faces. The iconography in orthodox churches keeps an extremely complex
symbolism that progressed in the Romanian churches at the same time with the end of
17 In this icon Jesus Christ can be portrayed as a bishop sitting on the throne. Or as half-length portrait,
but always framed by Mother Mary and John the Baptist. Sometimes we can also see the saint
hierarchs but always above the imperial doors, flanked on both sides by an equal number of Apostles
who have their bodies and faces oriented to the Deisis icon. “Deisis”- Greek term denoting “Ardent
prayer” can also be surrounded by the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, by the Apostles Peter, Paul,
Andrew, John the Theologian, by the three Holy Fathers, John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, Gregory
the Theologian, then by Saint Nicholas of Myra. Acc. to Michel Quenot, Sfidările icoanei, Another
Vision of the World, translation by Dora Mezdrea, Sophia Publishing House, Bucharest, 2004, p. 46.

the iconostasis development process in the XIVth century in such a way that we
currently witness “a chromatic feast” and a magic of colour exceeding the needs of
the colour symbolism in the icon.
3.2. In the colour ensemble of the orthodox iconography, nothing is random,
every chromatic shade sends its own message and it accomplishes its symbolic
significance without some aesthetic reasons influencing the choice of colour.
In the first centuries of iconography the colours were predominantly dark,
sober and beginning with the XIIIth century they became lighter, brighter and then
starting with the XVIth century the chromatics got more and more diverse.
The byzantine art bears two concepts for composing colours in terms of
image: polychromy and colourism. Polychromy imposes a system where the colour
keeps its value with clear juxtapositions, with no shadows, in such a way that the
viewer is surrounded by the colours’ brightness and purity; colourism takes the viewer
in a world full of nuances, with a unity of mixed colours, using transitional colours
that create pleasant aesthetic effects. It is a known fact that these systems of colour
composition produce exceptional aesthetic effects and emphasize the image and
mostly the face.
The byzantine specific drawing lines strictly encode the characters’
appearance through differences in the saints’ specifics and through the representation
formula of the human body at an abstract level and in immutable patterns.
The colour in the artistic image of iconostasis confers expressivity, movement,
emotions and feelings, but especially symbolic value. Tradition does not limit the
iconographer’s mastery, although he takes into consideration the hermeneias that
prevent him from tending to “liberal art” but also due to the byzantine colours that
converge towards a message of silence and light, full of an ineffable charm.
The chromatic combinations that give artistic and aesthetic value to the
iconostasis rise to a level where the hermit is portrayed in vivid colours in such a way
that he can be highlighted through a rational and symbolic language.
3.3. Due to the colours’ fundamental contribution to the success of a
contemporary and genuine iconostasis, we can say about colours that they have
expressivity, movement, and their own power to awaken in the viewer emotions and
feelings, but they also have symbolic value.
The harmony and originality of byzantine colours, as well as “...the colours’
cheerfulness, the characters’ equilibrium and greatness, all converge to create an

atmosphere of unspeakable silence” 18 in the art of iconostasis. Thus, the elegance and
abundance of its composing elements can balance chromatics. When the viewer
notices the painted surface, his eyes are under the conquering effect of the colour’s
beauty, clarity and accuracy.
An ecclesiastic artist does not omit the sacred language of symbols, special
language, but amplifies it in order to reach his purpose and to include the presence of
the symbolised. We consider that the perpetuation of symbolic colours throughout
history led to their learning and maintaining in the area of Christian tradition. At the
same time the variety of shades obtained from the basic colours (red, ochre, blue,
white, black, green) undergo no major modifications of the known symbolism and
only their intensity can increase the symbol gravity.
To conclude, the byzantine aesthetics is discovered as an ample and coherent
system with certain contemporary connotations. The art of the icon is a visual-plastic
expression of the sensorial beauty, of the ethical and revealed beauty. Thus, the
principles of the byzantine aesthetics and iconography encompass the realist-naturalist
rendering, the ethical-moral rendering and the symbolical dimension of rendering the
Archetype-Persona.
CHAPTER IV
CONTINUITY AND CREATIVE FREEDOM IN THE ART OF THE
ICONOSTASIS
4.1. Iconographic canonical landmarks
4. 2. Technical norms of iconography
4. 3. Freedom of the iconographer
4. 4. Composition of iconostasis
4.1. The continuity and creative beauty in the art of iconostasis is in direct
relation with Tradition and the icon’s functionality. Canons regulate the essential
details but do not submit the painter to static rules, they are not a fixed system of
rules, they are not recipes, but they explain what not to do in an icon.
18 Michel Quenot, The Provocation of the Icon, p. 129.

Iconography keeps testimonies and models from icon painters perfected in
their art for contemporary painters who develop their style and strive to become
eminent in their works through their own techniques and special plastic language.
Canons 19 are the guarantee for the religious nature of the icon, without being
an obstacle in the artist’s individual work. Canons regulate essential details such as
the saint’s body position, the ratio between its components, the way the hand is
positioned for blessing or the saint’s movement, which most of the times is reduced to
a minimum and appears in a fixed frame.
For the iconographer the rules that need to be followed when painting an icon
in the iconostasis (and not only) are the same as those respected by the iconographers
during the early stages, when the basic norms for painting icons were established.
In order to grasp the iconographic art, knowing the literary sources is a must,
and the same applies for the techniques of the painters, of the habits and mores
dominant in the eras when the works serving as model for contemporary artists were
created.
This creative process led to the appearance of more hermeneias, iconographic
manuals that enter the Church Tradition bearing different values, which offers us the
possibility to know the byzantine iconography, to notice that old icons are permanent
models and the authentic iconographer remains anchored in this tradition.
4.2. Along the history the technical norms of iconostasis have undergone great
changes that were needed by the society or the painters. Even if the painters obeyed
with perseverance the ancestors teaching, they became stronger through practice and
through finding other working methods that serve the same purpose – the iconostasis.
Iconography is in a permanent progress, being based on the inherited
knowledge, those ancient, historical truths respected by the post-byzantine painters.
Iconographic schools – the Palaeologi School, XIIth century, the Macedonian
School, XIVth century, the Cretan School, XVth century, through theory and practical
19 During the Quinisext Synod opened on September, 1, 692, the Church formulated for the first time a
basic principle regarding the content and character of the sacred art, in response to a practical necessity.
Three canons of the Synod refer to the sacred art. Canon 82 showed the content of the sacred image, as
understood by the Church. This canon was a response to the situation in those times, namely that in the
Church practice they were still using symbols that replaced the human face of God. The significance of
canon 82 was that it was based on the connection with the dogma of God’s Incarnation truth. The
Synod decided to replace the symbols from the Old Testament and from the early Christian centuries
with the direct representation of what they were prefiguring.

training have provided icon painters who, even if different in their pictorial
expressions, they marked the Christian iconography in a positive way.
The artist knows that the icon portrays the exterior, bodily appearance of the
prototype but at the same time he needs to capture the pure image of the holy face.
The iconic representation conveys a specific message that makes it last throughout the
ages as a model, which proves that it is open also to other sources of inspiration for
the communion between prototype and painted, source of the creative freedom.
The task of the painter is to capture tradition and canons in the renewal of the
iconic faces, in a repetitive scene, through a creative process. The icons in an
iconostasis are made according to well known rules that blend canonical rigours with
personal mastery and show the painter’s creative freedom efforts.
The iconographic programme of iconostasis has not been everywhere and
every time the same, but has developed gradually and diversely from one age to the
other, according to the church architecture evolution. Thus, the icon painter always
remains a traditionalist and modern conveyer according to the space and time where
he activates.
4. 3. The painters, by looking at the model, strive to depict the iconic face by
means of their own artistic mastery, their reasoning, skill, talent and endeavour to
render some resemblances with the prototype.
The freedom of the iconographer is supported by the different appearances of
the saints that are a sum of distinct characteristics which highlight the painter’s role
and contribution. The fact that some descriptions or models are not rendered with all
the details related to the scene or to the saint, offers the painter a generous space in the
creative freedom.
The variety of each painter’s picture expressions and interpretation is in
relation with the models belonging to the church tradition which promote unity and
continuity from a remote past up to a present process of stylistic refinement.
It is a known fact the icon cannot undergo arbitrary changes, but is
transformed through the artist’s style and working manner. The mastery of each
painter in the area of Christian iconography creates a renewal process without
affecting the byzantine iconographic tradition.
The art of the iconographic creation integrates the individual traits in the
“painter’s signature” and the compulsoriness of knowing the connotations preserved
in the iconostasis. Respect for tradition is not a retrograde element of iconography,

ut rather it invites and orients the painters in the dynamics of the varied technotropic
creation met in the byzantine logic (pictorial canons and principles).
The art of the icon has been promoted by generations of iconographers that
have preserved conceptual unity and have promoted the role of the byzantine icon:
pedagogic, cultic, vocational and aesthetic in all the historical ages that influenced
iconography.
Renewing an iconic model and being creative in the icon does not imply that
the iconographer distances himself from the archetype content or that he creates
another iconic form carrying other semantic and theological values, but he refreshes
and rejuvenates the painted icon visually.
The art of the iconostasis is the result of a process of development,
undertaking, assimilation, revivals and processing of some old creative principles
“originating in the Middle East, combined with Greek-Roman elements plus a strong
touch of freshness brought by National Schools (...). All the constitutive elements,
Greek and Roman, Aramaic and Iranian, mixed in different proportions, form a
perfect, unique and original whole, despite all varieties. (...). The byzantine art
remained along its history faithful to its own principles, the variety of which was
preserved exactly through its differentiated origin that kept the canon’s immobility
and authenticity” 20 .
The goal of the byzantine painter “is to show that these are not just events that
happened in the past, but something that defies time and reaches into the present” 21 ,
and for this artists have put up efforts for their creative work along the centuries and
have sought for iconographic plastic solutions, thus leaving a rich byzantine heritage.
The unifying element for the byzantine creation from different ages is the
compositional principles, despite the stylistic differences.
The complete manifestation of the creative freedom is mandatory only in the
presence of conscience and sacred art knowledge. The specific character of the icon
is subject to a permanent process of renewal that needs to remain the expression of a
unique truth – the archetype 22 .
20
Emanoil Băbuş, Byzantine Iconography and Islamic Aniconism, in the vol. “The Honouring of Holy
Icons in Orthodoxy. Historical Retrospective, Crucial Moments in Establishing the Icon’s Theology
and Major Crisis”, Trinitas Publishing House, Iași, 2008, pp. 113-118.
21
Giorgios Kordis, Rhythm in Byzantine Painting, translation by Mihai Coman, Byzantine Publishing
House, Bucharest, 2008, p. 76
22
The Archetype is an ideal model, a supreme type or a prototype. The notion archetype is granted to
fundamental symbols that serve as matrix for an entire row of representations. In a broad sense the

CASE STUDY
on Saint Nicholas’ Icon in the Orthodox Church Saint Nicholas from
Hunedoara (XVth century)
The icon belongs to the Orthodox Parish “Saint Nicholas” from Hunedoara,
church declared historical monument, built in 1458. Together with this icon we can
see in the iconostasis the icons Deisis, Mother Mary with the Child and the scene with
the Assumption.
archetype is the primordial image, the mother image that nurtures the personal images in a common
archaic fund, including mythology, religion and folklore. Acc. to Luiza Maria Dumitru, The Monstrous
Sacred. Mythology, Mythistory, Romanian Folklore, Paideia Publishing House, Bucharest, 2007, pp.
15-16

The origin of Saint Nicholas’ icon (90.5/65/3cm), and of Mother Mary’s Icon
can be found in a letter dated 1775 from Hieromonach Nichita from the Prisplop
Monastery and priest Lazăr from Silvaşu de Sus addressed to the Bishop of Blaj,
Grigorie Maior, letter that notified the bishop that several goods had been taken from
the Plosca Monastery from the Country of HaŃeg, among which the icon of Saint
Nicholas painted in the XVth century 23 .
Following this notification, the bishop decided that all the icons found in the
church from Hunedoara should be kept there. Thus, Saint Nicholas painted in bishop
garments is appropriately preserved, which proves the quality of the Romanian
iconographer’s work regarding the techniques, colours and the stylistic details used,
creation attributed to Gavriil the Hieromonach, pilgrim in Transylvania 24 .
In terms of working style, the artist chose chromatics with warm shades and in
some places intense, enriched with refined decorative details and design present in
distinct areas of the icon. The icon of Saint Nicolas the Hierarch is like a unitary
whole that bears the mark of a creative concept rendered through a technique
preserved and known for centuries. The image of Saint Nicholas is depicted waist up
and is flanked by another two half portraits - of Jesus Christ on the viewer’s left and
of Mother Mary on the right.
The composition evolves vertically and is in strict accordance with the great
tradition of the orthodox sacred art. This icon holds a unique style where we can find
a coexistence of the respect for tradition, the vocation for renewal, the proportion, the
balance, the decorativism, the compositional rigour, the clear message and the subtle
relationships between drawing, colour and light. Moreover we can notice a special
calligraphic drawing and an expressive movement visible particularly in the garments
folds of the two characters placed near the face of the Holy Hierarch.
The icon distinguishes itself through the stability given by the central image of
Saint Nicholas which occupies approximately three parts of the wood surface, where
the balance is provided by the bilateral images of Mother Mary and Jesus Christ. All
the three faces emanate a softer mood, less subjected to the byzantine severity than in
other works belonging to the same period.
23
Marius Porumb, The Painters of the Iconostasis in the Church of Saint Nicholas in Hunedoara, in
“Acta Mvsei Napocensis”, X, p. 677-694.
24
Marius Porumb, Dictionary of Old Romanian Painting from Transylvania in the Centuries XIII –
XVIII, Publishing House of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest, 1998, pp. 163-164.

This homogenous work sends the viewer a historical, artistic and religious
message, a balanced composition that leads the viewer’s sensibility to aesthetic
experiences.
The stylistic manner of special artistic value offers the icon aesthetic qualities
such as harmony, balance, expressivity, accuracy, beauty of the ensemble and the
power to stimulate the sensibility of the person contemplating this icon. The rigorous
organization of the painted space and the placement of the three characters –Saint
Nicholas in a central position and two others in the second plan: Mother Mary and
Jesus Christ, reveals the religious and aesthetic perception concentrated in the
essentials in a sober background where the portraits’ hieratism is not stiff.
This icon of the Patron Saint holds extraordinary inner emotion in the facial
structure, emphasized by the saint’s interior life intensity, while through the stylistic
specific features we can consider it a sample of Romanian art.
Saint Nicholas stands out through the face and gestures concentration, through
the vivid coloured edge of the book he holds and through the expressive bishop
garment, decorated with symmetrically placed rectangular ornaments that intersect
and form crosses, out of the white-yellowish colour of the clothes and out of the
brown applied onto these ornaments.
Furthermore, Christ’s symbol, “the Cross” can be found also on Saint
Nicholas’ epitrachelion, but with some modified details and slightly bigger than those
on the garment. The epitrachelion has more intense accents that highlight the folds
and frames the face on the golden background. His body is outlined by an extremely
fine drawing which culminates with the kind face, surrounded by a halo incised on
gold, with a wise glance and the right hand raised in a gesture of hierarchal blessing.
His face lightened by the spiritual vocation is in harmony with the two other
holy figures’ hieratism. Thus, from a pictorial point of view, the organization of this
icon as a whole communicates in terms of theme and style. This artistic creation
abounds in solemnity and grace conveyed mainly through the expressive strength on
the face of Saint Nicholas the Hierarch.
Specific to icon painting, the basis of which is line and colour, we can see that
the artist acquires and masters these aspects in the figures’ outlining and inside them.
The dense colours indicate the late byzantine palette, while the precise drawing and
the plastic modelling, in some places subtly rendered, point to the amazing skills of
the icon painter.

This colouring, specifically byzantine, where the iconographer lights the flesh
and shadows and applies fine touches free of vigorous or rich accents, leads to a
hierarchical face with traits that inspire a state of calmness and meditation.
This studied case is exceptional through its high artistic quality found in the
delicate shapes of the drawing, the refined technique of the folds, the care for the
perfection of final touches, the preciousness of materials among which gold is
customary, all these qualities contributing to create a feeling of aesthetic intimacy that
we recognize in the icons attributed to the Romanian iconographic art of the XVth
century which highlight the sacred, the tradition and the vocation for renewal in the
Romanian area.
In terms of proportion, colour refinement and its harmony with golden, the
work of art is the desired result of the idea of harmony accomplished under the
influence of the most important values of the byzantine art. These aspects prove the
lively and fertile nature of tradition in the Romanian art and spirituality.
PRACTICAL ASSIGNMENT
MODULE ICONOSTASIS – FIRST REGISTER
(presentation)
My research on the symbolic-expressive connotations of colour in iconostasis
painting as well as the practice in this artistic field has led me to create, develop and

elaborate the first register, base and foundation in the history and present of the
iconostasis - regular presence in orthodox churches.
According to the principle stating that the iconostasis completes the
ecclesiastic space but also intermediates and unifies the relationship between man and
God in the liturgical cult, I consider that these icons present attributes specific to the
byzantine iconography through the technotropia of the iconized personae, that they
respect the coordinates inherited from tradition while through the approaching of a
personal working manner with current materials, they converge to the research and
promoting of the iconostasis of byzantine type.
I also mention that the entire ensemble meets numerous symbolic, creative,
chromatic and aesthetic prerogatives, all in perfect agreement with the challenges of
the byzantine tradition and the creative freedom in iconography.
As for the creative freedom, this compositional ensemble is the acquiring and
rendering of byzantine particularities, and their integration in the space provided and
the intermediation of all the elements that are also the basis for liberal arts.
Furthermore, this artistic endeavour required a constant researching activity so that it
could at any time be integrated in the regional, national and ecumenical artistic visual
cultural space.
In the development and approach of these iconic images I have applied various
working steps such as: analyzing some model-icons belonging to different centuries
and schools with the purpose of selecting the most suitable variants for an innovative
rendering in a personal manner.
Also the preparation of wooden stands and the defining of a unitary
compositional structure through drawing, technical and pictorial procedures,
colouring, and also through varnishing the entire ensemble and integrating the icons
in a wooden frame sculpted with symbolic motives ( The Greek Cross= symbol of
Christ, flower= Heaven, the twisted rope= our life’s road from birth to death) present
a typical sample of the stylistic particularities that I reunited in an ensemble that is
chromatically and compositionally harmonious.
This register confirms the presence of a feeling of aesthetic intimacy capable
of particularizing a byzantine iconographic frame where some distinct elements
coexist – elements specific to the XIIth century (the icons background, the presence of
gold in the halos, ornaments, the distinct chromatic richness and the icon of Christ),
XIVth century (the icon of Mother Mary and the Annunciation), XVth century (the

icon of Saint Nicholas), XVIth century ( the Hierarchs on the Imperial Doors) and
XIIth century ( the Archangels on the Deacon’s Doors ) .
The iconographic and stylistic originality present here denotes some
reminiscences of the Palaeologian art (XIIIth century) when the personality of artists
became visible and gradually more powerful, which promoted creative freedom.
Thus, in this context, we can notice a colour range enriched with shades of green,
sulphurous yellow, strident red, rather cold grey blue but also flat, bright, intense and
vivid shades.
We can also point out, under the influence of an ascetic vision of human
figures, the elongating of proportions, the line sinuosity, the silhouette verticality, the
face and slender body simplicity and sobriety, the nimble and ethereal gracefulness,
all emphasized by the drawing’s fluidity and the vividness of movements indicated by
clear lines that cross the figures and that allow the obtaining of some unique stylistic
effects and the creation of a feeling of sumptuousness.
As a consequence, although this data is specific and present in the field of
byzantine painting, this iconographic ensemble is a personal contribution that
expresses a different vision of the chromatic and aesthetic vision in iconostasis
painting.
Some chromatic elements, at times considered as being too diverse shades or
too intense colours for iconography, but which are present in the early centuries of the
byzantine art, have been integrated, interpreted and elaborated by me with the purpose
of providing a provocative form to a particular idea.
To conclude, through this paper I aimed an essential point - that of obtaining
practical high performance, but I also challenged some aspects regarding the
connotations and symbolism of colours, the aesthetics and the freedom of the artistic
act for the iconography of the contemporary iconostasis.
Keywords - iconoastas, evolution, iconography, painting, color, symbol, aesthetics,
design, prototype, color, beauty, creativity, continuity, images, canons, style,
harmony, tradition.

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………………….. 3
CHAPTER I
ICONOSTASIS AS INTEGRAL PART OF THE ORTHODOX CULT –
HISTORIOGRAPHIC ASPECTS ………………………… 5
CHAPTER II
1.1. Genesis iconostasis ….…………………………………………………….. 5
1.2. Evolution of the iconostasis in the Balkans, space outside Byzantium .. 11
1.3. Iconostasis, integral part of the worship place ………………………… 14
AESTHETIC EXPRESSIVITY IN THE ICONOSTASIS CHROMATIC …..…... 22
2.1 Aesthetic expressivity of iconostasis ……………………………………... 22
2.2 Face beauty………………………………………………………………… 25
2.3 Icon - aesthetic creation …………………………………………………... 29
CHAPTER III
SYMBOLIC FUNCTION AND CHROMATICS OF ICONOSTASIS ………...... 33
3.1 Symbolic function ………………………………………………………… 33
3.2. Chromatics of iconostasis ………………………………………………... 37
3.3. Colour – symbolic and aesthetic colour…………………………………. 40
CHAPTER IV
CONTINUITY AND CREATIVE FREEDOM IN THE ART OF
ICONOSTASIS ………………………………………………………………………. 50
4.1. Iconographic canonical landmarks ……………………………………... 50
4. 2. Technical norms of iconography………………………………………... 58
4. 3. Freedom of the iconographer …………………………………………... 64
4. 4. Composition of iconostasis ……………………………………………… 73
CONCLUSIONS ……………………………………………………………………….76
CASE STUDY – Icon of Saint Nicholas (XVth century) ………………………….... 81
PRACTICAL ASSIGNMENT: Module iconostasis – first register (presentation) . 90
ANNEXES …………………………………………………………………………… 100
GLOSSARY………………………………………………………………………….. 147
ABBREVIATION LIST……………………………………………………………... 178
BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………......... 182
SUMMARY…………………………………………………………………………... 183
STATEMENT………………………………………………………………………... 194
CURRICULUM VITAE …………………………………………………….............. 195
SUMMARY …………………………………..……………………………………… 198
KEYWORDS ……………………………………........................................................ 216