St. John the Divine

Adapted from 17th century icon written by Simon Ushakov & another 17th/18th century icon by an unknown iconographer.

Dates of work/completion: February 1, 2010-July 2011

Egg tempera on gessoed wood (walnut?)

Gilding = 23.5 K gold leaf

This painting of this icon was inspired by the story of the First Baptist Church having to sell its Tiffany window depicting St. John as a youth. This icon was written with the intention to provide another means for the congregation to financially support its mission for homeless peoples.

The icon was painted using egg tempera which imparts a sense of architecture and dimension to the icon. Historically, icons were painted using the egg tempera method. When it dries, egg tempera becomes almost “fossilized” in its adherence; thus, icons that were painted in the 3rd and 4th centuries still exist today. Each layer of paint builds upon the previous, eventually producing an icon that can be felt by the heart and by the hand.

The use of ever-lightening blue highlights is a technique used during the 17th century. This bright addition to the usual colorations of icons was probably influenced by the rapid rise of bright colors being incorporated in other artworks/schools of color at that time.

Icons of St. John the Divine were originally written as a description of how St. John received his visions, later described in Revelations. Some earlier icons were written to show St. John receiving these words while in his cave on Patmos.

St. John sits in contemplation, his hands to his lips signifying silence. He is sitting in the Silence, listening to the Word of God. Whispering into his ear is the Angel of God (also known as the Wisdom, or Sophia). In iconography, the Angel of God is identified by the green and red nimbus surrounding its head within a halo. The Cyrillic convention of labeling all persons/beings is followed with the Angel being identified by the abbreviated version “A.G”. The symbols over the letters tell the viewer the words have been abbreviated. St. John is identified, again using the Cyrillic tradition of lettering, as “John, Theologist”. St. John’s face shows two large bumps on his forehead. The bumps tell the viewer this person had great wisdom. A crease runs from his left eye signifying great suffering and great age. If his face were a full frontal view, creases would run from both eyes.

The book in his lap is turned so that viewers may read what St. John may be contemplating. The words are written in the traditional Russian manner of shortening letters and compressing words. The verse, “ If we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us” (1 John 2:10) was chosen specifically for this icon, for this congregation. It seemed the perfect message about the work of this church family.

The value of an icon lies not in its being beautiful in itself, in its appearance as a beautiful object, but in the fact that it depicts Beauty - the Beauty of the acquired likeness of God. The task of an icon is not to provoke human emotion but to guide all the faculties of human nature toward its own transfiguration. - John O'Donohue

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