The art of the icon: a theology of beauty – Marginalia Cover Image

Arta Icoanei: O teologie a frumuseții – Marginalii
The art of the icon: a theology of beauty – Marginalia

Author(s): Ioan-Adrian Buta
Subject(s): Theology and Religion, History of Religion
Published by: Asociaţiunea Transilvană pentru Literatura Română şi Cultura Poporului Român - ASTRA
Keywords: theology; icon; beauty; vision; iconography; Orthodoxy;

Summary/Abstract: This paper is based on one of Paul Evdokimov's seminal works: The Art of the Icon: A Theology of Beauty. If secular art tries to capture and go beyond the human by reaching for the idea of the transcendent which it projects into the abstract, the art of the icon renders the spiritual, the spiritual world, the world that penetrates the immanent without denying it, even using its means to translate us into the light of the eighth day. Using limited means to render the Unbounded is indeed an art. The author shows us that not every religious artistic achievement can be called an icon in the true sense of the word, not even what we find in churches exposed for worship and bearing the title "icon" are icons. The present work is intended as a solution and as a criterion that can be used to distinguish between a canonical and a non-canonical icon from both a theological and an artistic point of view,

  • Issue Year: XI/2023
  • Issue No: 22 (2)
  • Page Range: 55-66
  • Page Count: 10
  • Language: Romanian