Deisis – An Iconographic Installation

The truth is that when I was offered the possibility to set up a small exhibition on the occasion of the 34th Symposium of Art and Theology, organised by the School of Theology, University of Navarra, I did not have sufficient material, as I was moving and dismantling my workshop. On the other hand, as…

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Iconography In The Landscape

One of the points I have been hammering at since I began writing for OAJ, is how symbolism is not just an arbitrary set of codes and meanings but is rather the very place where logos encounters the world, a coming together of different levels of reality. (See for ex, my article on the Recovery…

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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…

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Mercy on The Right. Rigor on The Left

This is post 1 of 3 in the series “The Right and Left Hand in Iconography” Jonathan Pageau examines the recurrence of left and right hand symbolism in traditional art and how they create a pattern of engagement in the world. Mercy on The Right. Rigor on The Left St-Peter on The Right. St-Paul on…

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