Greek Orthodox Church
Every Orthodox Church built today, in the West as well as in the East, is as a rule equipped with icons produced by contemporary artists. These works, whether mosaics, paintings on wood, or frescos, are executed according to rules that have been obeyed for centuries. Because these Orthodox rules have always carried such weight traditionally, the artist, as opposed to the work, i.e. the icon, was always somewhat in the background. This means that the liturgical value of the icon was always more important than its artistic value or, perhaps, that the liturgical value of icons was always so fundamental that their artistic merit was not divisible from them. The liturgical, artistic, and aesthetic instance formed a whole – a whole that included every other element of the church’s space: its architecture, the surface of its materials, its music, the light of its candles and its smell. These correlations are impressively and perspicaciously described by the Russian priest and philosopher Pavel Florenskij who examined the issue of icons during the Stalinist period of secularization of Orthodox churches and cloisters. What is wrong with icons being produced and churches being built today?
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