Aidan
Hart UK. Resources
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This
new page provides details of resources needed by icon painters
and those interested in the meaning of icons. It includes
makers of icon panels, art suppliers providing icon painting
materials, book reviews, icon websites.
NEW
BOOK 'TECHNIQUES OF ICON AND WALL PAINTING: Egg Tempera,
Fresco, Secco" by Aidan Hart
The
most comprehensive book to date on the techniques of icon
and wall painting. 460 pages. Over 450 colour illustrations
and over 160 drawings. 227mm x 278mm. Hard cover, £40.
Gracewing publishers, 2011.
BUY YOUR SIGNED COPY NOW
For
more information and to preview book.
This
is the most comprehensive book to date on the techniques
of icon and wall painting. Illustrated by over 450 colour
ilustrations and over 160 drawings, it is a source of pleasure
and inspiration for the general reader as well as for the
practising icon painter. More than just a technical manual,
it sets artistic practice in the context of the Church's
spirituality and liturgy, with chapters on the theology
and history of the icon, and the reasons behind the placement
of wall paintings within churches.
Some comments:
"I know of no comparable work in the English language
that deals with the technique of icon painting in such a
thorough and comprehensive manner. Yet, while concerned
with technique, the treatment is never merely technical.
At every point we see how technique reveals a transfigured
world. Spirituality and technology are combined together,
so that each illuminates the other."
From the Preface by Kallistos Ware, Metropolitan of Diokleia
"The
wealth of information in this book makes it an indispensable
reference not only for iconographers but also for any painter
using egg tempera, fresco or secco. It covers all the necessary
processes, including the making and gessoing of wooden panels,
gilding, preparing pigments, the various techniques for
painting in tempera, as well as lime plastering and fresco,
right through to photographing finished artwork."
From the Foreword by HRH The Prince of Wales
"This
book makes known to us a craft, but more importantly it
is the Confessio of a man who epitomizes the liturgical
beauty of the Orthodox Church. He is full of joy and this
same joy he communicates to us: with his heart he loves,
and with his hands he fashions matter. He uses pencil, brush,
chisel. He carves wood and stone, works with metal. He fashions
form and colour. He manifests the Spirit. And he confesses
that 'The Word became flesh'. Thus you see not only how
a holy icon is made within the Church, but also how the
human person made as an icon of God struggles to become
holy."
Archimandrite Vasileios, Iviron Monastery, Mount Athos,
Greece
"Aidan
Hart combines the vision of the contemplatitive with the
skill of a gifted artist. For those many people for whom
Icons are a door into the divine there cannot be a better
guide."
Dr. Richard Chartres, Bishop of London
"An
icon is visual theology, the Word of God. It can only be
written in truth by one who seeks and loves this holy Word.
Aidan Hart understands this to the depth."
Sister Wendy Beckett, contemplative nun and author on art
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ICON
PANEL MAKERS
United Kingdom:
- Dylan Hartley. Icon Boards Shop
Email: dylan@dylanhartley.com
A qualified cabinet-maker, Dylan makes high quality
icon panels using limewood (also called linden in Europe,
and basswood in America), with oak or other hardwood
for the braces, which are dovetailed and tapered in
the traditional way to prevent warping. The panels can
be hollowed to the depth required, the most common ranging
from 3mm to 7 mm. Large panels can be made by glueing
up a number of boards using high quality wood glue.
Sizes made to order.
America:
- Icon Boards. www.iconboards.com
Supplies ready-made panels in a wide range of sizes,
as well as bespoke panels. Stanislav Solovyev, 206 Jamaica
Blvd, Endicot, NY-13760, U.S.A. Phone/Fax (607)754677.
- Religious Supply. www.religious-supply.com
This company imports boards made in Pskov monastery
in Russia. Address:18 Hunter Lane, Ithaca NY 14850,
U.S.A. Phone: 607 539-7940, Email:
info@religious-supply.com
ICON
MATERIALS SUPPLIERS
United Kingdom:
- L. Cornelissen and Son Ltd., 105 Great Russell Street,
London, WC1B 3RY. Phone 0207 6361045.
www.cornelissen.com
- AP Fitzpatrick, 142 Cambridge Heath Road, Bethnal
Green, London E1 5QJ. Phone 0207 7900884.
www.apfitzpatrick.co.uk
- Stuart R. Stevenson, 68 Clerkenwell Road, London,
EC1M 5QA. Phone 0207 2531693.
www.stuartstevenson.co.uk
- Wright’s of Lymm, Warrington Lane, Lymm, Cheshire,
WA13 OSA. Phone 01925 752226. www.stonehouses.co.uk
For gold leaf and gilding tools.
- Rosemary and Co. Makers of fine artists’ brushes.
PO Box 372, Keighley, West Yorkshire, BD20 6WZ, U.K.
Phone 01535 600090 www.rosemaryandco.com
- The Gilder’s Warehouse Ltd., 5 Woodside Commercial
estate, Thornwood, Epping, Essex, CM16 6LJ. Phone 01992
570453.
- Wessex Timber, Longney, Gloucester, Gloucestershire,
GL2 3WT, U.K. Phone 01452 740610. www.wessextimber.com
Has a good supply of limewood planks.
America:
OTHER
PIGMENT PRODUCERS
- www.mypigments.com
produces a very high quality azurite powder
pigment, made from the semi-precious stone azurite.
Their froth flotation method of purification produces
a very deep blue, and of finer particle size than I
have ever seen from other producers. They also prepare
malachite and volkonskoite.
Email: enquires@mypigments.com
- Attila Gazo of Master Pigments www.masterpigments.com,
produces azurite, malachite, orpiment, realgar,
volkonskoite, cinnabar and more recently,
lapis lazuli both in a simple ground powder
form, but also the superior extraction process.
FULL-TIME
AND PART-TIME COURSES IN ICONOGRAPHY AND RELATED LITURGICAL
ARTS
- Four year part-time Diploma in Icon and Wall
Painting, run by The Prince’s School of Traditional
Arts, London.
This is currently taught by Aidan Hart in Shrewsbury,
Shropshire, U.K.. Lessons are two whole days a month,
eleven months each year. The School is also developing
a broader Liturgical Arts programme. Next set group
of students due to begin 2013. For further information
and enrolment forms phone 020 7613 8532 or visit their
website www.psta.org.uk
For the Diploma go to 'Post
Experience Diploma'
- Sancti Angeli Skete, Scotland. Sister
Petra Clare is a Roman catholic nun who runs a long
term icon course supported by a correspondence course
for the theory, and also short-term icon courses.
www.sanctiangeli.org Phone 01456 415218.
WEBSITES
OF OTHER CENTRES OFFERING OR ADVERTISING SHORT COURSES
United Kingdom:
- Five-day courses run by Aidan Hart.
Run in May and September. See the 'Workshop'
page on this website,
- The British Association of Iconographers,
www.bai.org.uk
They run a journal and a website, which includes details
of all current icon courses in the UK.
- Sister Petra Clare runs five day
course in various places within the UK. www.sanctiangeli.org
- The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts.
www.psta.org.uk The school is developing
a range of introductory liturgical arts courses, such
as illuminated manuscripts, calligraphy, and stained
glass.
North America:
France:
- www.atelier-st-andre.net
Founded by Fr. Egon Sendler, it is a Roman Catholic
icon studio, which sometimes runs courses in France.
- www.atelierdamascene.fr
Atelier Saint Jean Damascène, La Prade 26190, Saint
Jean en Royans, France. Tel : 04 75 47 55 87
Holy Land:
- www.eliasicons.co.uk/bethlehemiconschool.html
7 day courses run twice a year giving a basic introduction
to Byzantine iconography held at a Greek Catholic monastery
in Bethlehem, the Holy Land. Run by an English iconographer,
Ian Knowles. Email: Ian Kowles for further details.
Italy:
- www.sira.it/mosaic/studio
This established school runs excellent five-day courses
in Ravenna, their techniques based on those used in
the many famous Byzantine mosaics found in that city.
Advertisers of international courses:
WEBSITES
OF SOME CONTEMPORARY ICONOGRAPHERS
There
are of course many iconographers with websites, so the following
are just a selection of the sites that I particularly respect
or have found useful:
USEFUL
ICON REFERENCE WEBSITES
ICON
RELATED BOOKS
Theology and history of the icon:
- 'TECHNIQUES OF ICON AND WALL PAINTING: egg
tempera, fresco, secco' by Aidan Hart. The
most comprehensive book to date on the techniques of
icon and wall painting. 460 pages. Over 450 colour illustrations
and 160 drawings. 227mm x 278mm. Hard cover, £40.
- Baggley, John. Festival Icons for the Christian Year.
London: Mowbray, 2000. Very good at linking the icons
to the Orthodox liturgical texts of the relevant feasts.
- Cavarnos, Constantine. Byzantine Thought and Art.
Boston, Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies,
1974. Also by the same author and publisher:
- Fine Arts and Tradition: A presentation of Kontoglou’s
teaching . Boston, Institute for Byzantine and Modern
Greek Studies, 2004
- Byzantine Sacred Art. Boston, Institute for Byzantine
and Modern Greek Studies, 1985
- Orthodox Iconography. Boston, Institute for Byzantine
and Modern Greek Studies, 1977
- Meetings with Kontoglou. Boston, Institute for Byzantine
and Modern Greek Studies,1992.
- Evdokimov, Paul. The Art of the Icon: a theology of
beauty. Oakwood, St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1990.
A very penetrating and broad analysis of icons, beauty
and art.
- Florensky, Pavel. Iconostasis. Oakwood, St Vladimir’s
Seminary Press, 1996. A philosophical and highly original
inquiry by a great polymath and priest, looking not
just at the icon but at art in general.
- Forest, Jim. Praying with Icons. Orbis Books, 1997.
A good introduction, by a well known Orthodox writer
and speaker.
- John of Damascus (Saint).Three Treatises on the Divine
Images. Trans. by Andrew Louth. St. Vladimir's Seminary
Press; 2003. Seminal texts by the main defender of icons
against the iconoclasts (eighth century).
- Mathew, Gervase. Byzantine Aesthetics. London: John
Murray,1965. An excellent guide to the philosophy behind
Byzantine aesthetics.
- Ouspensky, Leonid. The Meaning of Icons. Oakwood:
St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1982. A classic work,
this covers the main icon types, including the major
feasts.
- Ouspensky, Leonid. Theology of the Icon (Two volumes).
Oakwood, St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1992. Primarily
an historical account of icons.
- Sendler, Egon, The Icon: Image of the Invisible.
California: Oakwood Publications, 1988. An excellent
introduction to the theology, style, history, and technique
on icon painting. Out of print but due to be reprinted.
- Tradigo, Alfredo. Icons and Saints of the Eastern
Orthodox Church (A Guide to Imagery). An excellent guide
to the main icon types, both of saints and feasts. Well
illustrated and succint.
- Theodore the Studite (Saint). On the Holy Icons.
St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2003. Like St John of
Damascus; work, a seminal primary text in defense of
icons, written in the early ninth century.
- Wood, Archimandrite Zacchaeus (ed.). A History of
Icon Painting. Moscow, Grand-Holding Publishers and
U.K: Orthodox Christian Books Ltd., 2005 (Russian edition
in 2002). An excellent work that covers the history,
theology and some technique of icon painting.
Technical works related to egg tempera painting:
- 'TECHNIQUES OF ICON AND WALL PAINTING: egg
tempera, fresco, secco' by Aidan Hart.. The
most comprehensive book to date on the techniques of
icon and wall painting. 460 pages. Over 450 colour illustrations
and over 160 drawings. 227mm x 278mm. Hard cover, £40.
- Bomford et al. Italian Painting before 1400. London:
National Gallery, 2002. The catalogue of an exhibition
which described the findings from scientific analysis
concerning how these western European medieval paintings
were created. Many of the materials and techniques would
have been the same as used in icons.
- Cennini, Cennino d’Andrea. The Craftsman’s Handbook
(translated by Daniel Thompson). New York: Dover, 1960.
Although not describing icon techniques as such, Cennini
does describe many traditional techniques and materials
doubtless used by iconographers.
- Dionysius of Fourna. The Painter’s Manual of Dionysius
of Fourna (translated by Paul Hetherington). London:
Sagittarius Press, 1981. The most thorough of the manuals
describing Greek icon and wall painting techniques.
Written on Mount Athos 1730-1734.
- Gottsegen, Mark David. The Painter’s Handbook. New
York: Watson-Guptill, 2006. One of the best technical
art books around, more up to date than the classic works
by Mayer and Doerner. Highly recommended.
- Mactaggart, Peter and Ann. Practical Gilding. Herts.,
England: Mac and Me Ltd., 1985. Small, but one of the
best books on gilding techniques.
- Mayer, Ralph. The Artist’s Handbook of Materials
and Techniques. Faber and Faber, 1982. A classic. Much
material superseded by Gottsegen, but still full of
good information.
- Ramos-Poqui, Guillem. The Technique of Icon Painting.
Kent: Search Press Ltd. and Burnes and Oates,1990. A
clear exposition of the author’s techniques. Out of
print.
- Sendler, Egon, S.J. The Icon, Image of the Invisible.
California: Oakwood, 1988. An excellent introduction
to the theology, style, history, and technique on icon
painting. In much greater depth than most. Unusual in
that it combines chapters on technique, theology and
hisotry. Out of print but am told that it is due to
be reprinted.
- Theophilus. On Divers Arts. New York: Dover, 1979
(translated with notes by John G. Hawthorne, and Cyril
Stanley Smith). An early twelfth century work, describing
various art techniques including the Byzantine membrane
technique of egg tempera.
- Thompson, Daniel V. , Jr. The Practice of Tempera
Painting. New York, Dover Publ., 1962. A detailed account
of painting techniques, gessoing, and gilding.
- Tsekoura, Lito (Editor). The Hidden Beauty of Icons.
Athens: Ministry of Culture – 10th Ephorate of Byzantine
Antiquities, 2004. A detailed scientific analysis of
old icons. The Greek Orthodox Convent of Ormilia, Greece,
has an extensive labarotory dedicated to analysing icons
using state of the art equipment. They do invaluable
work in revealing what pigments and layering systems
were used to make the icons they study. There are surprising
results.
Technical
and historical works related to fresco, lime plaster,
secco:
- Dionysius of Fourna. The Painter’s Manual of Dionysius
of Fourna (translated by Paul Hetherington). London:
Sagittarius Press, 1981. The most thorough of the old
manuals describing Greek icon and wall painting techniques.
Written on Mount Athos 730-1734.
- Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture (translated
by Morris Hicky Morgan). NY: Dover, 1960. Written by
the Roman architect in the first century B.C. Book VII
contains much of interest on plastering techniques.
- Winfield, David C. Byzantine Wall Painting Methods.
A detailed analysis, largely based on the author’s extensive
restoration and conservation of Byzantine wall paintings.
Very difficult to find.
On the relationship of the icon with the arts:
- Bychkov, Victor, The Aesthetic face of Being: Art
in the Theology of Pavel Florensky. Crestwood, New York:
St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1993.
- Cavarnos, Constantine. Byzantine Thought and Art,
Belmont, Mass, USA: Institute for Byzantine and Modern
Greek Studies, 1980.
- Cavarnos, Constantine. Fine Arts and Tradition, Belmont,
Mass, USA: Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek
Studies, 2004.
- Evdokimov, Paul, The Art of the Icon: a theology of
beauty. Oakwood, St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1990.
A very penetrating and broad analysis of icons, beauty
and art. More affirmative of non- iconographic art than
Leonid Ouspensky’s works.
- Florensky, Pavel, Iconostasis,. Crestwood, New York:
St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1996. A seminal work that
helped restore traditional iconography in Russia in
the early 20th century.
- Hart, Aidan. www.aidanharticons.com. On the articles
page there are various articles on the icon, art and
the Orthodox spirituality.
- Louth, Andrew. “Orthodoxy and Art,” in Walker. A
et al (editors) Living Orthodoxy in the Modern World,
London, SPCK, 1996. Pages 159-177. One
Orthodox response to the phenomenon of western art:
- Michelis, P. A. , An Aesthetic Approach to Byzantine
Art. Dufour Editions, USA (also Batsford UK), 1955.
A classic work that interprates art history using the
category of the sublime and not just beauty.
- Michelis, P.A. . Aisthetikos: Essays in Art, Architecture
and Aesthetics. Wayne State University, 1977. A refreshing
series of essays in which the author, an estabished
academic of aesthetics, considers aspects of 20th century
art and architecture from a more spiritual vantage than
most art scholars.
- Rexine, John E., An Explorer of Realms of Art, Life,
and Thought. Belmont, Mass, USA: Institute for Byzantine
and Modern Greek Studies, 1985.
- Sherrard, Philip, The Sacred in Life and Art. Ipswich,
UK, Gorgonzola Press, 1990. An Orthodox thinker who
attempts a spirtual analysis of the predicament of
western art.
Useful books for quality large illustrations of icons:
- “Hellenic Terni” series. Athens: Eidetic Athenian,
1994-1995. In Greek and also English. Difficult to find,
but excellent for large reproductions and details:
- Axiemastou-Potamianou, Myrtali. Byzantine Wall Paintings.
1994
- Vokotopoulos, Panagiotis. Byzantine Icons, 1995
- Galavaris, George. Byzantine Manuscript Illuminations,
1995
- Xatzidaki, Nano. Byzantine Mosaics, 1994
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