Description
BEGINNING ICONOGRAPHY LEVEL II students will prayerfully transform a blank gessoed icon board to an icon of Theotokos in Supplication (Hagiosoritissa). This class is open to students who have completed Beginning Iconography Level I. Beginning Iconography Level II is the next step in acquiring skills required for progression to Intermediate instruction. Students acquire the following skills by writing the bust figure icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary: how to gild the background, how to execute a dynamic, ¾ turned figure and face, how to address a smaller turned face, and hands. As with Beginning Level I, students will prepare the icon board, transfer the image, draw in the Byzantine style, gild, paint in egg tempera, while learning the theology of the icon, offered in a quiet, contemplative environment conducive to meditative prayer.
Build Your Home Altar
The Hagiosoritissa is the first of three companion icons you’ll create as you progress through the Beginning curriculum.
Together with Christ Pantocrator and St. John the Baptist, these icons form the traditional Deesis—a timeless expression of prayer, mercy, and intercession that has adorned churches throughout the Christian East for centuries. Displayed together, they create a beautiful home prayer altar that can remain with your family for generations.
Write an icon that has prayed for the world for over one thousand years.
Why This Icon?
Most people have never heard of the Hagiosoritissa, yet it is one of the most profound Marian icons in the Christian tradition.
In this ancient image, the Mother of God is shown praying and interceding for all humanity before Christ. For centuries this icon occupied a place of honor in Byzantine churches as part of the Deesis—the great icon of intercession—where Mary and St. John the Baptist stand beside Christ, praying for the salvation of the world.
What You’ll Learn
By the completion of this course students will confidently understand how to:
- Paint a three-quarter Byzantine face and bust figure
- Paint expressive Byzantine hands in prayer
- Gild an entire gold-leaf background
- Build luminous flesh tones using the traditional layered egg tempera method
- Paint Byzantine folds
- Understand Marian symbolism, inscriptions, garments, and color theology
- Continue mastering traditional egg tempera techniques introduced in Beginning Level I.
This class meets Thursday evenings from 6-8:30pm.
No classes during the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s.
Click here to download the supply list.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.