name that icon…

30Mar09

photo-421

Are there any ‘iconographists’ out there that could name the icon above?   I’m not at all versed in Eastern Orthodox icons, but I really dig this.  I found it at a rockin thrift store in Alabaster, AL (America’s Thrift = Glory!) still in a plastic covering, for like two bucks.   Judging from the face, I suspect it’s Jesus, but the short hair doesn’t seem right, and isn’t the royal garb uncharacteristic of common Jesus icons?  You’ve got the staff in one hand and the cross in the other, so there’s the pastoral/shepherd image, tipping me off that if it’s not the Christ, it was an early Eastern bishop or something.

There’s always the possibility that it could be a more recent piece of art, and not a traditional ancient EO icon.

I’m a little rusty on my Greek, so I can’t quite make out what the letters might stand for.  It says (very roughly) ” ‘o ap z”  (not sure about the squiggly zeta) on the right, and roughtly “co zo n” on the left.  So can anyone solve the riddle?

Either way, I appreciate the image of ‘pastor’ with a cross in one hand, and a staff in the other–the sign of peace and reconciliation, and the sign of guidance and care.  It’s beautiful art, and he’s found a nice place on my office wall.


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5 Responses to “name that icon…”  

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  1. 1 Nicolas Acosta on March 31, 2009 said:

    I don’t know man. You got me interested and I’ve been searching all over the interweb but can’t find anything. Surely I just went down all the same blind alleys you did, since I am also not an iconographist. It’s a great looking icon though, you’ll have to make an update if you find out who it is. My guess is that it’s not Jesus, and that it’s someone early in the history of the church like you say.

    I wonder (since it seems there are few other postmodernists/poststructuralists/postpostpostists out there to engage the question with me), how important is it to find out who it is? Il n’y a pas de hors-texte, there is no outside-text, right? Isn’t the most important thing how the image functions in itself without having to reduce its meaning to anything outside itself? If the image is a medium between you and the grace of the saint, then is the intent of the iconographer secondary to what’s being communicated through that medium? Or am I being to free and easy in my poststructuralism? Just some thoughts.

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  2. 2 thepriesthood on March 31, 2009 said:

    those are interesting thoughts. it does, as you say, function in the now without a real historical context, which is cool. but i can’t help but think how much more meaningful it would be if i knew the context behind it. like reading the gospels, if i know nothing about first century Palestine and the Jewish world, it would still be a beautiful text, but I would be missing so much. For me, locating things in their context, whether historical, cultural, whatever–is so key.

    it’s the paradox of context. the beauty is that the more I know about the icon, the greater and deeper the mystery. what compelled the icon artist to paint this person? what was it about their life that was exemplary? what is the meaning of the eyes gazing up and to the right? when i get these answers, they only create more questions, and i’m only drawn deeper into the mystery.

    i don’t know who the icon is supposed to be, but THIS i know: I uncovered something interesting in my iconic ramblings… Randy Harris is the reincarnation of St. Ephrem:

    http://rlv.zcache.com/st_ephraims_prayer_prayer_card_postcard-p239306442357570354trdg_400.jpg

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  3. 3 Nicolas Acosta on April 1, 2009 said:

    I agree with all that. When people ask me if being a “deconstructivist” means making the text mean whatever we want it to mean, I think they don’t understand what deconstruction/postmodernism means. To effectively deconstruct something, we have to know what it is we are deconstructing, and that means having a grasp on the historical conditions of a text’s significations. What I do think it means, however, is that the text–in this case, the image–has been untethered from the original intent of the artist (like Nietzsche’s image of the earth being loosed from the gravitational pull of the sun after the “death of God”), and that intent is not binding on what meaning it carries today. So it’s good to find out as much as we can about this icon, and to understand the significance of the red cloak and the staff and the Greek letters. But at the end of the day when it’s you, the icon and God in your office, the artist won’t be there to make any interjections on how the three of you should interact.

    That’s Randy alright. Well done.

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  4. 4 thepriesthood on April 1, 2009 said:

    tru dat. beautiful thoughts bro.

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  5. 5 elenie on September 7, 2009 said:

    The icon you have looks to be † Martyr Sozon of Cilicia (208/304).

    In the Orthodox Christian Church, we celebrate his life
    on every year on September 7

    He began life as a pagan shepherd in Lycaonia. Coming to faith in Christ, he was baptized and received the name Sozon (“Save”). Thereafter he took every opportunity to proclaim the Gospel to his countrymen and to urge them to give up their idols. Entering a temple of Artemis in Cilicia, he cut off its golden hand, broke it into pieces, and distributed the gold to the poor. When he learned that because of this some were being punished unjustly for theft, he gave himself up to the governor Maximian. He was beaten to death with rods, by some accounts in 288, by others in 304.

    Hope this is helpful to you (although I just found your post and it’s now September!)

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