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Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Cultural Differences in Icons

Have you ever wondered what cultural differences there are in icons?
Most icons of given saints or events will have common, shared story elements.... In addition to these common elements - shared by most icons - icons often reflect the culture and tradition of the iconographer's ethnic background. There are four readily recognized ethnic types of icons: Greek, Russian, Arabic, [and Coptic]. When representative examples are placed side-by-side the differences become quite clear. 
This webpage offers a simple chart that will have you in-the-know on the four main cultural styles of icons in less than 2 minutes!

http://www.melkite.org/arabicon.htm

Talented Tuesdays is a feature which focuses on art, architecture, music, culture, food, and the running of the domestic church. User submitted questions and solutions are welcomed.



3 comments:

  1. I really feel Georgian icons should be in that list too. They are different enough from Byzantine to merit their own sub group.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Carlos: I'll see if I can feature Georgian iconography in an upcoming post!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I found an interesting article about Belarusian Iconography.

    http://www.belarusguide.com/culture1/religion/icons/

    ReplyDelete

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