Ancient Christian Coptic Oriental Orthodox icons
- The reason for asymmetric body members in early Christian
iconography
While checking some information on Coptic Eastern Oriental faith,
I've stumbled upon a very beautiful (and unique) ancient Orthodox
Christian icon depicting
Saint Menas and our saviour the Lord
Jesus Christ, below is the very beautiful icon
Saint Mena (Sv. Mina) and The Lord Jesus Christ icon from 6th
century
As you can see the iconography is very interesting, the images
differ from modern day iconography the portraits are not looking so
serious but looks like "childish". This childish forms and faces on
the early Christian iconography is not accidental; it expresses the
childish like pure faith our Christian devoted ancestors had. This
early Christian faith and spiritual life icon is obviously in
conjunction with our Saviour Jesus Christ words as red in the
Gospel according to Matthew:
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who
then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" Then Jesus called a
little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said,
"Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as
little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little
child like this in My name receives Me.
Matthew 18:1-5
This icon as well as the early Christian icons are very different
from nowdays iconography probably for reason;
the images difference, the seriousness and the lack of brightness
in the faces of nowdays iconography is a clear sign of the great
decay of both Orthodox Christian as well as the down-fall of
spiritual life worldly.
I've seen similar childish looking image icons in some Bulgarian
ancient relics museums in my child years and always thought the
depictions are so kiddish because iconographers of that time did
not have the painting knowledge and skills to draw better
ones.
Now as I know Christianity much better than then, I understand my
previous assumption for the reason of the kiddish looking images is
wrong.
Very interesting in the early Christian iconography are the shapes.
If you take a close look to above icon, you will notice the
disparity of the two body members; the hands, head and eyes are
unusually big. My guess for the lack of correspondence of body
members is the attempt of early iconographers to put accent on most
important members of our bodies;
- The
head (holding the mind and thoughts of the
saints)
- The
hands through which the daily food is raised and the
eyes through which the world is comprehended are much bigger than
in a real person portrait.
- The
mouth which is almost the size of the eyes; obvious
reference that for early Christian contemplating was much more
precious (important) thing, than speech.
This is also in accordance with the New Testament holy scriptures
which says like so concerning
the tongue:
8 But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil
and full of deadly poison.
9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men,
who have been made in the likeness of God;
10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren,
these things ought not to be this way.
11 Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and
bitter water?
12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce
figs?
Nor can salt water produce fresh.
Notice also the Halos of the two saints, the size of the halos is
almost one third of the whole body of the saints. The Gospel
hold by our and all humanity Saviour Jesus Christ is also enormous
sized; corresponding almost the height of the arm of Christ on the
icon.
The size of the Gospel stresses out the importance of the Holy
Bible writtings for early Christians. Nowdays the size of Gospels
or Holy Bible especially among protestant Churches "tradition" is
becoming smaller and smaller following the spirit of the
time proclaiming mobility ...
Today the iconography Orthodox Christian "school" has severely
changed and the icon images are much more complicated than in
ancient times.
The complication of images and elements on Orthodox Icons is a
"mirror" of the internal complicated world of us modern-time
Christians. This over-complication of our internal spiritual world,
does separate us from God instead of uniting us as it is well known
in Holy Orthodox Christian tradition God is best known through
simplicity and pureness in life thoughts and actions.
The Coptic Oriental Orthodox Church is the only Church, where there
is still iconographers drawing in the style of the ancient times
childish looking icons. The reason Copts preserved this ancient
iconography is that they have conservated big portion of the
ancient faith rejecting the decisions of all 7 Orthodox
Ecumenical Church Councils. Copts still accept only ecumenical
council decisions up to the III-rd ecumenical council. This is also
the reason why Eastern Oriental Orthodox Christians are considered
not in official communion with the rest of Eastern Orthodox
Churches. I had the opportunity by God's grace to meet an Coptic
Orthodox Christian (a guy called Baky); From what I've seen and
experienced within the few months with Baky my conclusion is Coptic
Orthodox layman faith is much stronger than the one in most of
other Orthodox Christians I know. The official standpoint of our
Eastern Orthodox Church concerning the copts are that they're in
heresy and not really orthodox. I'm not sure if this is really
true, since I have spend few months with this Coptic Christian
brother this autumn and winter and from what I've seen and heard as
well as researched on coptic Orthodox it seems their overall Church
teaching, Holy Liturgies and everything is very much orthodox (with
very little service and faith differences). Here are few beautiful
Coptic Orthodox Christian icons still being drawn in the spirit of
early days Christianity.
Abba (saint) Anthony the Great the father of Orthodox Christian
Monastic Life
Coptic Orthodox Oriental Icon of Saint Anothony the Great - "the
founder" of Monastic life
Tobias Old Testamential Story coptic icon
Holy Family - Flight into Egypt Coptic Orthodox oriental
icon
Christ the Saviour - Coptic Oriental Orthodox icon
Holy Theotokos Coptic Oriental icon
Saint Athanasius coptic orth icon
The Dormition of Virgin Mary Coptic icon