The Orthodox Church
and its Icons

 

General

Please note: Brackets around a hyperlink indicate that it has been dead or out of working at the time of updating this webpage. If the connection cannot be reestablished after some time, the link will be removed from the webpage. 


 Byzantium - Paul Halsalls comprehensive and well organized website concerning historical studies of Byzans, incl. texts and images from The Orthodox Church. A short introduction. Several search possibilities with good  comments. Audio. See Gallery for images, incl. some icons. Great site! (Associated with Fordham University, New York).

Global Index - claiming to be an alphabetical list of all copy-free material in English about The Orthodox Church online! Additionally the site contains a Local Collection of texts. (Karen Rf Keck and Norman Hugh Redington, St. Pachomius Library).

A Dictionary of Orthodox Terminology   - an alphabetical dictionary, containing a lot of information about The Orthodox Church. (The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America).

Encyclopedia Britannica - articles about Eastern Orthodoxy, history, as well as about faith and liturgy.(payment for all content!)

Mount Athos:The Holy Mountain - an instructive site about the history of Athos and about the monasteries with examples of the art/the icons of different epochs. Fine illustrations. Also information about visiting Athos. (Makedonia, Greece - see below too).

The Labyrinth - a good search engine for medieval studies, including religion and art; comprehensive database under construction. (Associated with Georgetown University, Washington D.C.).



Orthodox churches

Here are a few addresses of some of the orthodox churches which have gone on-line with the most (relevant) material.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople - containing mostly material of church feast days and a lot of clerical meetings. Their photos are to be seen on flickr now.

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America - contains a lot of information about almost every topic regarding the Orthodox Church, many of which are available on youtube. Pictures on flickr (many dead links).

The Orthodox Church in America -  information about the church, faith, prayer etc. Also a section with icons (look below). Moreover a long article about orthodoxy (go to "Orthodox Christianity" and then to "The Orthodox Faith"). Documents about family politics (including homosexuality) and other church statements.

The Christian Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt - this website is not among the hottest; yet it is very informative. In the introduction you will find links to the history of the Coptic Church, as well as its liturgy, the sacraments, holidays, art, architecture, music etc. Apart from that also a section about gnosticism, and one about iconography. A collection of images. (confer icons below).

Myriobiblos - a Greek online library (click on English) containing many liturgical texts, church documents, articles about art, theology, philosophy etc. (The Greek Church e-text library). 

Den ortodokse kirkeforening (danish) - information about the Orthodox Church and its theology. It contains articles about baptism, the Eucharist, confession, biblestudies and fast. A few liturgical texts. Links and service calendar. Primarily the purpose is to establish an orthodox christian service life in Denmark. The language of the liturgy is Danish. The Danish congregation is organized as a branch of a greater community in Oslo, Norway, Hl Nikolai Menighet. (Kirkeforeningen "Gudsmoders Beskyttelse").
 

Links

Byzantine Studies Page -  at this website you will find a rather large section of general links to Orthodox Christianity together with links to orthodox monasteries and churches. Look in Gallery and see also Medieval Sourcebook. (Associated with Fordham University, New York).



 Icons

The intention of this collection of references to icons is to make available to the visitor the rich world of the icons of The Orthodox Church. You may want to make yourself acquainted with the liturgical use of icons or you may just wish to rest a little while in communication with the icon. Be welcomed!

What does it mean to paint/to write an icon? There are certainly many different opinions about this subject. Some iconographers paint "repetitions" of icons, several hundred years of age, especially Byzantine and Russian icons, while other iconographers loosen the bonds to these patterns and work more "freely", but still loyal of the theology of the Orthodox Church and the invariable basic rules of iconography. Some examples of this last mentioned position might be contemporary Rumanian iconographers (see below).

The icons of most websites will first appear as thumbnails, which may be enlarged to different sizes/resolutions on the screen. Now and then the image won't download instantly, still (2019) the case of some of the Russian pages. So some patience may be required! The intention has been to include only links to icons of a good quality of appearance (on a scale from acceptable/good to extraordinarily fine).

When in the annotations the picture quality of the icons are referred to, what it meant is only the technical representation of the icon on the screen. There will be no comments to the quality of the icon as such!

All of the icons on this webpage can be seen enlarged. To avoid typing on the pages with the enlarged icons, the links to the websites, from where they originate, will be directly activated by clicking on the enlarged icon, if the websites are still alive (quite a lot are dead by now)



Iconography

Icon Painting - an excellent website! A very good introduction to Russian icon painting; information about different techniques, the various schools (Kiev, Novgorod, Moscow and Pskov) and artists (Theophanes, Rublev and others). Information about the many themes recurring in icon painting abundantly illustrated by examples of high image quality. (Associated with Rollins College, Florida).

Future Iconographers - Aidan Hart's informative article "Today and Tomorrow: Principles in the training of Future Iconographers". A must!

Novgorodian Icon-Painting - a long, thorough and informative article with a lot of annotated examples of the icons of the Novgorod School. (Official website about Novgorod, Russia).

The Icons of Macedonia - a short article about fresco and icon painting in Macedonia. (Macedonian Culture and Information Centre, London).

 Russian Orthodox Cathedral - look for information about the feasts of the church year and the saints in the three sections: "Icons of the Mother of God", "Lives of Saints" and "Orthodox Feasts". Small icons illustrate part of the text.  (The Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Washington, D.C.).

Byzantine Art Icons - this workshop has painted icons for many churches in Greece and other places in the world. It contains pages about both "portable icon technique" and "wall icon technique". In additon an example of a prayer.  (Private, Greece).

Coptic Iconography - small website about the neo-coptic iconography including examples of icons (courses in London).

Neo Coptic Inconography - interesting interview in the Orthodox Arts Journal with illustrations.

Archimandrite Zenon - Aidan Hart has written a long informative article, including illustrations, about the famous icon painter Zenon (Theodor). In the end of the article you'll find links to Zenons works.


- see below for more pages about iconography.





 THE ICONS ARE ORGANIZED INTO 3 SECTIONS:
A. Icons: descriptions of the images

The State Hermitage Museum - many highlights from the collection of Russian icons. Images are fine quality. Search after "icons". (St. Petersburg, Russia).

Kirchen Kalender - contains a collection of icons relating to the different holy days of the ecclesiastical year. See also the page about the monthly festival icons. German website.

Early Christian and Byzantine Image Pages - a comprehensive and absolutely beautiful website, connected with a course. A goldmine of frescoes, mosaic works, jewelry, textiles, ikons, illuminated manuscripts, churces, monasteries and a great lot of other images. Large files of very fine picture quality. Most icons are collected in the sektions "Sinai Icons", "Festival Icons" (3 pages), "The Theotokos", "Christ" and "Contemporary Russian Art". (Prof. Joe Byrne, Belmont University, Tennessee).

Icons of Bosnia-Herzegovina - an excellent site with a detailed text about churches, monasteries and icons in the area. Beautiful old icons from the 16th - 19th centuries. Good picture quality. In addition one is given an impression of the effects of war on the religious life and art. (Svetlana Rakic, fled from Sarajevo in 1992, now associated with Franklin College, Indiana).

Belarusian School of Icon Painting - a collection of fine old icons with descriptions of each image. The icons are from an area presumably not known to many people. Very good picture quality. Text about ikonography and the right use of icons. (Belarus - White Russia).

Sacred Art Gallery - a very large private collection of icons from c.1650 to 1918. The icons are placed chronologically, displaying the oldest ones first. Please notice: This website is very suitable for education because of its detailed description of each of the 84 icons. Excellent quality of images enlarged. (James and Tatiana Jackson Collection, Cedar Falls, Iowa - the collection is part of James Jackson's antique shop website) .

Mount Athos: The Holy Mountain - we are told here that there exist about 20.000 icons on Mount Athos. A small fraction of these are presented in an iconographic context. Very beautiful icons of a good picture quality. The same page contains also a paragraph about mosaics and wall paintings. (Macedonia, Greece).

Ethiopian Icons - interesting small collection  of Ethiopian Icons. Two sections: 1) "Faith" contains the exhibition of the icons and 2) "Science", where one can see a treatment case study. (National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution).

St. Catherine's Monastery - en artikel om Sct. Catherine klostret pe Sinai, ledsaget af tekst om ikonografi samt oplysninger om udvalgte ikoner. Henvisninger til videoer og artikler. (John Watson for Imago Dei, Dom Alex Echeandma).

Metmuseum icons - not a very impressive exhibition of icons. The best thing to do is to seek on "icon" and sort out what is being displayed. Many of the icons are strangely enough represented in black/white. Detailed description about each icon. (Metropolitan Museum of Art).

Byzantium - a long informative article dealing with a great part of the icons from the exhibition of the Metmuseum, "Faith and Power 1261-1557" (see above). The icons are shown in a low resolution, yet the picture quality is good. (Carter B. Horsley, The City Review Inc., New York).

Icons of Macedonia - a large and beautiful collection of early icons from the 11th-16th century. Many of the icons have been damaged and some of them have been carefully restored. Mainly museum pieces. Images enlargements. Elaborate description and information. Comprehensive article about" the history of the icon" in Macedonia.


The British Museum - a collection of icons and some short articles about iconography. Please use the search. Or try this intrance: Research -> Online research catalogues -> Russian icons -> Preface and then click on "All objects", then 74 icons will appear. The museum also holds 22 Byzantine icons.(2019). Rich information about each icon.

 

 

B. Icons: limited information

Gallerie di Palazzo Leoni Montanari - a comprehensive collection of Russian icons from the 13th to the 20th century lies here on display as a permanent exhibition. Italian and English. (Vicenza, Italy).

Icons of the Saris Museum - contains a collection of icons from the Saris Museum at Bardejov in Slovakia. Information about dating and place of origin. (Walter Maksimovich, Kensington MD, USA).
Orthodox Icons -  new and old icons mixed together. No datings. Beautiful in the enlarged sizes. (Orthodox Christian Fellowship - avoid clip-art on this site).

The Novgorod Icon Gallery - a big collection indexed according to subject and period. None or only a little information. Not the very best picture quality . A long article about icon painting. (Official website about Novgorod , Russia).

 Serbian Orthodox Diocese - a collection of (partly damaged) Serbian icons. Fine quality of images. Contains for example throrough descriptions of some monasteries, illustrated by pictures. Introductions to the history and the culturel inheritance of Kosovo and Metohia illustrated by icons. (Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska and Prizren).

Old Russian Icons - contains a small collection of fine old famous icons, including some of Andrei Rublev. Not so good quality of images. (The Russian Art Gallery, London).

The Russian Icons Gallery  - a Japanese website, click on "Plates" to see icons. Short English text.

The Passions of Christ - contains 15 old icons from Cyprus; some of which are not well preserved. The icons are gathered around the themes of Eastern (and laid out with a political motive, on this greek-orthodox website).

Old Serbian Icons - some very old (and damaged) Serbian icons are displayed here. Interesting. Unfortunately the quality of the images is not the very best.

World's Great Madonnas - a collection of historical images of the Virgin, including only a few icons. The index page is focused on the annunciation and the birth of Jesus. See also "archive of past images". Very little information.

Lemko Icons - here one finds 7 very beautiful icons from Polish museums. Large files of a fine quality. In addition a long article about ikonography. (Walter Maksimovich, Kensington MD, USA).

Pearls of Folk Architecture - a very interesting webpage about old wooden churches from the 18th century together with examples of ikonostasis and icons in the area of the Carpathian Mountains. The images are of a varied quality and size. This page has got the same domain as Lemko Icons (see above). If you go back to the intrance page: Religious Life, you will find links to other pages of a "different" content, like several articles about the wooden churches and the architecture. As the webmaster himself writes: "Lemko site is an organizational disaster but has lots of good information". He is right! (Walter Maksimovich, Kensington MD, USA).

Icon Painting in Belarus - here one can find interesting and somewhat "different" icons from the 15th - 18th centuries. 

Icons of the Church Year - the icons at this place are organized according to the church year. There are links to texts about most of the various feastdays, that is, the icons are placed in their right context, but there are no datings! Both the new and the old icons are of good image quality.
At the same website one can find the page Icons of the Mother of God, which contains a list of small icons. In addition there is also a page with a short text and images of the miracle icons of the Mother of God. (Orthodox Church in America).

Russian Icons - Olga's Gallery - a very beautiful gallery with many of the classical Russian icons in excellent enlargements. There are 3 sections plus special pages, including short biographies, about Theophanes, Andrei Rublev og Dionysius.
Most of the icons are dated between the 11th-16th centuries and belong to the museum collections in St. Petersborg, Novgorod and Moscow.
Short information about each icon and about iconography.

Icons from Struga (Macedonia) - a small collection with some information. (Father Stefan Sandzhakoski).

Our Lady of Balamand - this monastery in the Northern part of Lebanon exhibits a small collection of icons. There are some iconographic information, but no dates of the icons. (Our Lady of Balamand Patriarchal Monastery, Lebanon)

The Irkutsk Art Museum - a small nice collection of icons from the 15th-18th centuries. Fine picture quality. Only Russian, but click on Икона. (The Art Museum of Irkutsk, Siberia)

Old Russian Icon Painting - the nice collection of icons from the 14th-19th centuries is no longer on display, only 2 icons. (The Sergiev Posad State History and Art Museum-Reserve, Moskva regionen).

Iconography - here one can enjoy an exhibition of several hundreds of icons, primarily from the 14th to the 17th century. Very fine image quality. For a start click on Иконография. The navigation may seem somewhat disorderly; the folders have been organized by topics, so some icons may pop up more than one time. Information in Russian about date and place (the original and the present place of each icon). Bibliography. Search. You may use a programme such as Free Translation Online, which offers a quick translation from Russian to English. This website is highly recommended!

Christianity in icons, murals & mosaics - an exhibition of a around three hundred old icons from the hands of the famous masters and from the great icon schools. The image quality is mostly okay. The gallery is organized by topics, but one can also browse the gallery by schools, by authors, by current locations such as cathedrals, monasteries, museums etc. The intrance "by groups" shows how the icons are placed together in the iconostasis. Please notice that the Russian section of the website shows more icons than the English section. A tour into these webpages is recommended!

Christian image - a huge collection of primarily old icons. Rather small files. Picture quality mostly okay. Image information about quite a lot of the icons. One is invited to vote or write ones opinion of each icon.
In the Russian version of the website one can find many more icons than in the English translation, and it is worth a visit, mainly because of the many Byzantine/Greek icons.

The Moscow Kremlin - the museum exhibits a great many icons. The English version displays less icons than the Russian pages. (Moscow Kremlin Museums)

Saint Andrey Rublyov's Icons - here one can look at 17 nice icons by Rublev. The images are of a good quality and can be enlarged twice (the second time: click on "Cсылка"). Only in Russian.

 Virtual Collection of Icons -  The collection is divided into different subjects - the address inserted here begins with the section: Troica. You may go on to the sections: Christ, Deesis, Mother of God1, Mother of God2, Sofia, Festival Days NT, Festivals, Saints1, Saints2 and Others (the upper lines is an index - a translation programme such as Free Translation Online or google translate may be helpful). The collection is of mixed contents, but it contains many very beautiful icons. Only Russian. (Nesusvet, private).

Palekh Icons - a collection of icons from Palech from the 17th-19th centuries. No systematic list. Some images are not the very best picture quality. Most icons are from the State Museum of Palekh Art.

Odigia Ikonenmuseum - an exhibition of old icons, e.g. John the Baptist. Illustrative examples of restoration. Information unfortunately only in Dutch. Images of nice picture quality. (Odegia Institute, Haag, The Netherlands).

Culture of Russia - an extensive and marvellous exhibition of the famous beauties of Russian icons. Apart from the frontpage, this website is only in Russian, and navigation is a bit difficult. But it is absolutely worth it to have some patience here. You may click on the list below, for example the Russian words such as Богоматерь and Спас (that is: the words for God's Mother and Christ), in this way you will get many more results.

Virtual Icon Catalogue - an impressive big collection of Russian icons, divided into sections:Old icons from the 11th-16th century (176 icons), Godmother icons (151 icons), Novgorod icons (52 icons), Pskov icons (24 icons), Tver icons (44 icons) and Paul Korins oldrussian collection (20 icons). Unfortunately in some of the sections the icons are rather dark, but in other sections they are of a very high quality. NB: only Russian text. However the collection is very well organized, which makes it easy to navigate the web site. The dates can be understood right away. A visit is highly recommended! (Moscow's St Mitrophan of Voronezh Church and the Church of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos in Petrovsky Park).

Web Gallery of Art - here one can find a collection of very beautiful icons from the 13/14th-16th century. Search "Russian icon", "Greek icon" and "Byzantine icon" in title and click on "Comment" for information. The icons may be send as postcards.

 



 C. Icons: no additional information

 The Coptic Network Picture Archive - subject indexed. (The Christian Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt).

Russian Icons - big collection divided into 10 sections with icons from different ages. NB: only Russian text. (St.Petersburg Press).

Aquarium Icons - big collection of Russian icons. Many, but not all of them, are of a rather bad image quality. Unfortunately no thumbnails.  Information only in Russian (the reason why it is placed in this section C).

Holy Dormition Orthodox Church - a church presents its contemporary icons (nearly 50 pieces). Only thumbsnails. (Holy Dormition, Cumberland, Rhode Island, part of The Orthodox Church in America).

Icons of Ancient Russia - a small collection of Russian icons from the 11th-16th centuries. Two pages. Information only in Russian.

Gallery on Kotlovke - this website contains several hundreds of icons, but it is not easy to navigate unless you read Russian. From the main photo page a visit may be recommended into the following collections: Архангельский собор (Arkhangelsk Cathedral), where from page 13ff a great many icons can be seen. That section also includes liturgical objects, frescoes etc. of a fine picture quality. The most comprehensive exhibition of icons one can find in the section  Кострома (Kostroma). Almost all of the icons are earlier than 1800. The section Переславль (Pereslavl) contains some very beautiful icons in between a lot of other objects. Also in  Данилов монастырь (Danilov Monastery) fine icons can be seen. Dates and information about the main part of the icons, and only in Russian. A more direct way may be to write Икона into the search.

 

Chat fora

Live Journal - Russian chat forum about everything, but where people also have inserted many beautiful icons, some of them in a very big resolution of a rather good quality. Most of the icons have got dates. Please in particular notice the icons posted by John Petrov. Navigating this website is easy. You simply go backwards from the mainpage (the page of the day) by the link "go:earlier" at the bottom of the pages. This chat forum is worth a visit, even though it seems not to have been alive for some years!

 

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Below you will find some addresses to sale of icons and to contemporary icon painting:

Even if most of these websites are primarily commercial, some of them actually contain information, which is not easily found elsewhere, for example about restoration, about copying, and about the technique of icon painting. Besides that often a short survey of iconography may give you further information. The image quality is mostly good.

The icons of these websites are divided into 2 sections: 1) antique shops with online exhibitions of old icons and  2) contemporary icon painters.
 

1. Antique shops and auction houses

 The Temple Gallery - this nice gallery displays an online exhibition of several hundreds icons of a good quality. Rather small images, but many fine details. New exhibitions twice a year. A visit is recommended! (London).

Russian Icon Gallery - a comprehensive collection of Russian Icons from 1500 to 1917. Beautiful enlargements of images including information. More new exhibitions during the year. Very nice website! (Tallinn, Estonia).

Zoetmulder Ikonen - a big collection of Russian icons from the 15th to the 19th century, divided into sections. Many beautiful high resolution images.  (Delft, Nederlands).

Ikonengallerie Dritsoulas - a German gallery display icons in a very handsome picture quality. Text about icons and to cellectors of icons. M|nchen).

Sancta - this shop offers a big collection of icons for sale in 4 different websites. Most of the icons are from the 19th century. Big images of a fine picture quality. One can see many interesting details in excellent enlargements! Many of the icons are "folk icons" and not all of the icons are in a good state of repair, which is reflected in the price. The oldest and most expensive icons are exhibited here. Nice layout. You may also visit the other website of Sanctas here. (Edgaras Mickevicius, A ntique Shop in Lithuania).

Antique shop - exhibition of several hundred icons, nearly all of them from the 19th century (the shop says that 70% of the icons are from the 19th century, but that is not the case regarding the online collection at least). Some of the first displayed icons have not been photographed right on and some are unsharp, but there are many pieces of a fine image quality, and there are many beautiful icons to buy in this shop. (Tallinn, Estonia).

Artantique - an excellent exhibition of icons from the 19th century. Fine enlargements of a good picture quality (except for a few). Nice layout. English version. (Moscow).

True Russian Icons - an exhibition of icons of a fine quality. Information including some descriptions of the images. High resolution pictures. New exhibitions twice a year. Have a look!

George Karpis Russian-arts - the icons here are displayed only in very small sizes, and the images are accompanied by short descriptions.

The Slava Gallery - small images including informative descriptions of each icon. A couple of illustrative examples of restoration are displayed.

Tsth-Ikonen - here you will find a small nice collection of Russian icons. Most of the icons are of a fine image quality, but some look unsharp. (Ferenc and Christel Tsth, Amsterdam).

Morsink Ikonen - many high quality icons, including quite a lot of early ones, offered for sale. The new ones can be seen in a very high resolution. Only short information. (Jan Morsink, Amsterdam). 

Auktionshaus Zeller - this auction house displays icons for sale as well as sold icons as far back as 2002. Click on the auction catalogs and scroll down to "Ikonen". The picture quality of most of the icons is okay. Medium images. (Michael Zeller, Lindau, Germany).

Antique Icons - this monastery has got some Russian icons from the 18th to the 19th century for sale. Fine enlargements of most of the images. (Holy Cross Monastery, West Virginia, US).

Gelos Auction - big Russian auction house.  English text in some of the pages. One may read about the collection here. (Moscow, Russia). Gelos also has a branch in Kiev, Ukraine.

Iconastas of Piccadilly - an exhibition of a great deal of icons from the 17th century and later times. Short information about each icon. Rather small image files. The picture quality not impressive, not sharp as many of the icons appear. (London).

Ikonengalerie Mvnius - an icon exhibition. Files of a varied picture quality. Some information in English. Descriptions in German.

Milatz Ikonen - here you will find descriptions of the images. Nice examples are displayed, though unfortunately quite a lot is of no good picture quality. The icons which have been sold are maltreated by big sold strips across the images. (Heerhugowaard, The Netherlands).

Ikonengalerie-Rutz - an exhibition of around 50 icons, some very old ones. Nice layout. Small enlargements with information. The quality of the reproduction of the images is not the very best.  (D|sseldorf, Germany).

Russian Art - a big private collection of Russian icons for sale. Organized into sections according to centuries. No further information. Images somewhat blurred. (Berne, Switzerland).

Ikonen-Galerie Horst R.Schmied -  a well organized exhibition of around 50 icons from the 16th-19th century. A separate section of brass icons. Some of the icons are very small and/or blurred. Not many replacements in this German website. (Bad Griesbach).

Carlo Teardo Antiquario - here one will find many nice icons for sale. Descriptions only in Italian. (Milano, Italien).

Ikonenhandel Grassmann - a small exhibition of icons nicely represented. (Berlin).

Brenske Gallery - a small selection of icons, mostly from the 19th century. Small images. (Stefan Brenske, Munich & Hannover, Germany, also in Zurich, Switzerland).

Russian-Antique - many of the icons here unfortunately are not displayed in a frontal way, but one can see many fine details. (New York).

The Russian Store - this exhibition quite nice, good quality images, descriptions of the icons and a number of original articles on related subjects. (Palm Beach, Florida).

Damascene Gallery - online shop features some authentic antique icons, new hand-painted icons and high quality printed icons on wood. (New Jersey, US).

 

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Ikonen Galerie Sophia - a small collection of old icons. German website. (Zurich). 

Antikhof Neuenstein - small online exhibition. Rather small images, but full descriptions! No updating for a long time. (Neuenstein, Germany).



2. Contemporary icon painters

Iconofile Resource Guide - helpful guide to find painters, fiber artists and metal workers in sacred art.

Dr. Georg Kordis - a master iconographer!, fascinating, painting of icons but also of great frescoes in churches, working to combine renewal with faithfulness to tradition. See Kordis' own website with icons. Informative interview. (Athen, Greece)

Betsy Porter Art and Iconography  - a very informative website. Apart from the icon gallery of the iconographer, you'll find icon classes and very good instructions step by step on how to paint an icon of your own. (California, U.S.)

Palekhskaya Icon Painting Workshop - in this workshop there are 14 icon painters working, drawing icons of a rarely high quality. You may find some very exquisite works.
The website is only in Russian; one may use a translation program (such as the free systran) or navigate a bit around (for example you will find icons on this page). The workshop has had exhibitions in many places, inside as well as outside Russia. The painters have made iconostasis in several churches. They also create and restore wall paintings in churches and monasteries.

Russian Icon" Moscow Icon-painting Center - this website contains contemporary icons of a high standard together with some articles about the situation of icon painting today. Unfortunately many links are out of function. You may visit the Russian page, where especially the section with St. Georg exhibits some excellent old icons. Russian and English.

Icon-painting Workshop Ekaterina - Russian workshop exhibiting contemporary icons. Only in Russian, but you may navigate through the (approximate) English words in the addresses of the different links on the menu. Click on gallery, on restoration and archive to see fine examples of icons from the nineties till now and also quite a lot of illustrating examples of restoration of damaged icons.
 
 Ikons:Windows into Heaven - contains a lot of relevant information about both Greek, Byzantine and Russian iconography, illustrated by icons. In addition a detailed section about the craft, plus links to other icon painters. (Austin, Texas).

Iconography - Icon Arts  -  - icon gallery with pages about the technique and history of icon painting. (Austin, Texas).

Orthodox Icons Today - a small exhibition of Fedor Streltsov's modern icons. Nice images. (Moscow).

Sacret Art Studio - Vivian Karayiannis exhibits here some icons from her studio. (Houston).

Atelier Saint-Andri - this workshop is a community of traditional Byzantine iconographers who follow the teachings of Egon Sendler. The website contains a full and interesting instruction of icon painting step by step including many illustrations.

Icons of Henk Roersma - this icon painter is an auto-didact who has been painting for 32 years. He has had several exhibitions. Very fine work indeed. (Lunteren, Netherlands).

Galleri St. Helene - kursus i ikonmaling - here you can learn to paint your own icon in nice surroundings with icon teacher, Anne-Marie Valton. (Tisvildeleje, Denmark)

Orthodox Byzantine Iconography - beautiful icons and murals by Vladimir Grygorenko (Dallas, U.S.). Also note the interesting article/interview: rediscovering iconography. You may watch his paintings on youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plWk2G-xrSI.

Aidan Hart Sacred Icons - iconographer and teacher for many students. Exhibits many of his icons on his website in a good quality. Fresco painter too. Very informative book: Techniques of icon and wall painting (England).

Prosopon School of Iconology - introduction of students to the practice and theory of Byzantine iconography. Many studios in U.S. and some in Russia and Estonia led by different iconographers. Beautiful icons.


Rumanian iconographers - not everybody has a website, but a selection of their inspiring icons can be seen on pinterest

Liviu Dumitrescu - one of the young very experienced iconographer. Icons, frescos and restoration. Watch the video (Contemporary Religious Art) on YouTube. The latest works from L.D.'s hand is an abrupt and exiting break from his earlier more traditional icon painting. (Bucarest, Rumania)

Gregore Popescu  - only in Rumanian

Elena Murariu Modern Art of Icons - very experimenting

Ioan Popa  - no website,  but a great deal of his icons can be seen in the interesting interview with him here

Gabriel Toma Chituc - Mihai Coman - Nicolae Balan  -  each of them has a presentation of selected icons in the informative article here

Eliseea Papacioc  - an article about the Romanian Orthodox nun and her work. Some of her icons one can see on Pinterest.

Anton & Ekaterina Daineko - partly in English, courses, both icon and fresco painting. (Minsk,Belarus) 

Studio "Theophanis the Cretan" - in spite of the name contains this website mostly a huge collection of Byzantine icons, where the visitors can contribute by sharing their photos of icons (and vote for some, if that is what you want). Many of the icons can be seen in a big size, they can be downloaded and may be useful as models or inspiration for your own practice. (The studio is situated in Eastern Thessaloniki)

Todor Mitrovic - inspiring iconographer from Serbia. No website, but a big selection of his icons can be seen in the interesting interview about the aspects of contemporary iconography. Many important questions about painting an icon are discussed here.

(Byzantine Art Studio) - displayed here are some big iconographic pieces of work of Fr. Theodore Koufos and his student and collegue Valentin Streltsov. A video shows impressive work in a church. There are views about iconography and the meaning of the icon. There are referred to the "rules" of iconography before and during the work and other subjects. (Studio in Toronto, Canada)

Sacred Murals Studio - on show here are the fascinating works of Phil Davydov og Olga Shalamova. Once again the Orthodox Arts Journal, a highly recommended journal (!), has brought interesting interviews, here with both of the two Russian iconographers. Among other subjects one get information about the conditions for the Russian icon painters in Soviet Russia. Also watch an interview here (St. Petersborg, Russia)

 

 

 

 


                 Slideshow 1                    Slideshow 2

 

 

Ikonostasis
Deesis Range (most parts)
Andrei Rublev, 1408
The Dormition Cathedral, Vladimir
 (display 1280x1024)



 

                         

Updated: 5th May 2019                           
Elin von Linstow
cand.mag. on history and religion
email: dariya@stofanet.dk                  meditation1      meditation2      meditation3     meditation4