"Icons and Saints of the Eastern Orthodox" by Alfredo Tradigo

Icons and Saints of the Eastern Orthodox Alfredo Tradigo

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Format:: Paperback / softback
Publication date:: 12 Oct 2006
ISBN:: 9780892368457
Imprint:: Getty Publishing
Dimensions:: 384 pages: 205 x 157 x 26mm
Illustrations:: 400 colour illustrations

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An icon (from the Greek word eikon, "image") is a wooden panel painting of a holy person or scene from Orthodox Christianity, the religion of the Byzantine Empire that is practiced today mainly in Greece and Russia. It was believed that these works acted as intermediaries between worshipers and the holy personages they depicted. Their pictorial language is stylized and primarily symbolic, rather than literal and narrative. Indeed, every attitude, pose, and colour depicted in an icon has a precise meaning, and their painters - usually monks - followed prescribed models from iconographic manuals. The goal of this book is to catalogue the vast heritage of images according to iconographic type and subject, from the most ancient at the Monastery of Saint Catherine in the Sinai to those from Greece, Constantinople, and Russia. Chapters focus on the role of icons in the Orthodox liturgy and on common iconic subjects, including the fathers and saints of the Eastern Church and the life of Jesus and his followers. As with other volumes in the "Guide to Imagery Series", this book includes a wealth of color illustrations in which details are called out for discussion. This is a new title in the popular Guide "To Imagery series", and includes 400 colour illustrations; and over 380 pages.

Alfredo Tradigo is the artistic director and art critic for Famiglia Cristiana magazine and has devoted thirty years to research on Christian iconography.