This lavishly illustrated guide to iconography explains through words and pictures the history, meaning, and purpose of Christian icons as well as the traditional methods that religious painters use t
This lavishly illustrated guide to iconography explains through words and pictures the history, meaning, and purpose of Christian icons as well as the traditional methods that religious painters use to create these luminous, spiritually enlivened works of art.
Solrunn Nes, one of Europe's most admired iconographers, illuminates the world of Christian icons, explaining the motifs, gestures, and colors common to these profound symbols of faith. Nes explores in depth a number of famous icons, including those of the Greater Feasts, the Mother of God, and a number of the better-known saints, enriching her discussion with references to Scripture, early Christian writings, and liturgy. She also leads readers through the process and techniques of icon painting, showing each step with photographs, and includes more than fifty of her own original works of art.
Deeply inspiring and utterly unique, The Mystical Language of Icons will inform both those who are familiar with the rich tradition of religious art and those who are not. It also serves as a powerful devotional resource in its own right, one that Christians everywhere can turn to again and again.
Theological Book Review
"This beautifully illustrated book provides the reader with an excellent guide to understanding icons. . . For anyone interested in the production and meaning of icons, this book will be essential reading."
New Directions
"I guarantee you will not be disappointed by the reproductions in this book of Solrunn Nes' icons. The colours are vibrant and the faces of the figures arrest the attention of the viewer — as of course they should."
Dallas Morning News
"Nes offers a fascinating survey of Christian icons . . . accompanied by full-color images of her work."
Touchstone
"Solrunn Nes has produced a fine guide to iconography in her Mystical Language of Icons. The book is lavishly illustrated in full color throughout with Nes's own icons, each in the style of one of the various schools with which she is most conversant. All are striking and luminous — and fully in accord with the objective canonical tradition. Her work reveals how one committed prayerfully to the latter can nonetheless produce art of obvious creativity. This book is unreservedly recommended."
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