The White Angel of Serbia: the icons are Blessed

My thanks again to St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Bonita Springs, Florida, for the opportunity to lead this iconography workshop.  On Sunday, March 30, the St. Mary's iconographers had their icons blessed by being on (and around) the altar during the celebration of the Eucharist. In addition, this traditional prayer was read.

A prayer upon completing an icon

You, yourself, O Lord,

Are the fulfillment and completion

Of all good things.

Fill my soul with joy and gladness,

For you alone are the Lover of Humankind.

Let your grace sanctify and dwell

Within this icon,

That it may edify and inspire those

Who gaze upon it and venerate it,

That in glorifying the one depicted,

They may be repentant of their sins

And strengthened against every attack

Of the adversary.

Through the prayers of the Theotokos,

The Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke,

And all the Saints,

O Savior, save us!

AMEN.

The White Angel of Serbia: Day 5!

It was an incredibly full day, as we finished lingering projects, added Gabriel's staff, the detail on the tomb, and then gilded our icons with 23K gold leaf, and finally, traced on the flying hair ribbons and halo.

Thank you again to the St. Mary's iconographers for a wonderful week. I hope to add pictures from their blessing of the icons on Sunday.

The White Angel of Serbia: Day 4

Today we laid in the face, hands and check out those great shoes!

Sankir, First Flesh

Second Flesh, the first highlight

Third Flesh, draws the light closer to the eyes and center of the face

Fourth Flesh adds more light and begins to highlight the wisdom mark, or third eye

Fifth Flesh adds more light still...

The Enliveners brighten the eyes and other light-catching parts of the face, and the eyebrows, and other eye details bring the face to life...

And below are more pictures of  St. Mary's iconographers, working hard and well...

The White Angel of Serbia: Day 3

Today Gabriel got fabulous hair, fancy wings, and a cozy robe...and empty shroud... tomorrow, face, hands and fantastic sandals...

Our iconograhers, hard at work...

Below, the hair is revealed with four increasingly bright highlights...

The White Angel of Serbia: Day 2

Thank you to St. Mary's iconographers for another great day. Today we began adding light to our icons, starting with the "stone" upon which Gabriel is sitting, then moving on to the tomb, the ground, and finally the roof and second-wings. Tomorrow we'll highlight Gabriel's first set of wings, then move on to giving him (?) some great garb, and highlighting the shroud as well...

The White Angel of Serbia: Day 1

Today the Iconographers of St. Mary's Bonita Springs, FL traced the pattern of the icon onto their gessoed boards, and began to lay in the darkest, shadow colors of the icon...

 Iconographers, ready to begin a great week!
My thanks to this wonderful community for a wonderful first day...

The pattern is traced, and then we begin our move from darkness into light...

The darkest dark of the tomb is laid in first in black.

Then Gabriel's hair and first set of wings...

The second set of wings (for traveling between God's realm and ours...) and the roof and border...

The shroud and Gabriel's clothing are next... and the ribbon in his hair...

The first flesh, shadow tone, is this olive green called Sankir.

And the stones, ground, dirt are a darker, shadow version of another flesh tone (Second Flesh...) ... recalling that we fleshy folk are ourselves made of clay and dust, yes? along with a good dose of Spirit...

Tomorrow we begin adding light...

The White Angel of Serbia

Iconographers from St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Bonita Springs, FL will write this icon of "The White Angel of Serbia" during a week-long Lenten retreat, March 24-28.

The White Angel of Serbia is one of the best-known icons of the Archangel Gabriel, and is based on this 13th century fresco from the Mileševa monastery in Serbia.

The Angel indicates the tomb, empty but for Jesus' left-behind shroud, and addresses the women who have come to care for Jesus' body, saying, "You seek Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said." (Matthew 28:5-6)

This icon has a fascinating 20th century history, being the image in the first satellite broadcast sent from America to Western Europe after the Cuban Missile Crisis, and was sent into outer space as part of a message to extraterrestrials. Seriously.

Icons of angels include abundant symbolism unique to their place in Creation. They appear rather androgynous, with great hair but no beards.  They have two sets of wings: one to transport them in God's realm, the other to transport them between God's realm and ours. And they are constantly in motion, indicated by the ribbons in their hair, flowing behind them as if being blown about in the angel's wake.

Stay tuned as we write this icon.  I'll aim for posting pictures daily, to show how it unfolds, moving from darkness into light, death into life, anticipating resurrection...