Posts Tagged ‘ivory’
Carving the Virgin Hodegetria
(Editor’s note: this article was written by Martin Earle, Aidan Hart’s studio assistant who worked to create a commission they received for a statue of the Hodogetria. Martin can be contacted at mart_earle@yahoo.co.uk. ) I always brace myself for a bit of anti-Catholic sentiment when meeting an Orthodox Christian for the first time. A convert myself, I…
Continue reading »Carving a Reliquary
There are certain Medieval forms which have always been with me, seeming to affect an almost hypnotic attraction. The casket reliquary or “chasse” is one of these. Shaped like a tomb, but also suggesting a basilica church, these reliquaries most probably originate in early insular (Gaelic/Celtic/Pictish/Saxon) art. Most of us know this shape primarily from…
Continue reading »Can Statuary Act as Icon?
There is a long tradition of relief sculpture in the Orthodox Church’s liturgical art tradition, but very little in the way of three dimensional sculpture. Can sculpture in the round act like an icon, leading us through itself to its prototype? Although, for reasons discussed below, the Orthodox Church is unlikely to adopt sculpture in…
Continue reading »A Carver’s Commission
At the beginning of this story is my bishop, fittingly also the man who received me into the Orthodox Church when he was still a parish priest. He asked me if I could carve an “engolpion” – a large pendant worn by bishops, usually bearing an icon of The Virgin and Child. He asked…
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