Icons: The Fascination & the Reality - Hardcover

Onasch, Konrad; Schnieper, Annemarie

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9781878351531: Icons: The Fascination & the Reality

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1878351532 ISBN 13: 9781878351531

Publisher: Riverside Book Co, 1997

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Approximately 500 beautiful illustrations in full color, placed as closely as possible to the text. Slightest corner bump on back, otherwise as new. Measures 10x13.25 inches. Translated by Daniel G. Conklin. Index. Bibliography. 302p. A magisterial account. Topics include icon centers and schools, pictorial themes, special forms, artistic techniques and materials, pictorial language, etc.

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From the Publisher:

The cover illustration is Mother of God Pelagonitissa (detail) Makarije Zographos, 1422 Art Gallery, Skopje

This is a new work, published in German in 1995. First English-language publication November 1997. 302 pages, 10"x13" ( 25 x 33 cm), linen binding, french-fold dust jacket.

More than 500 color illustrations integrated within the text.

Topics covered:
Origins of Christian fine art
Icon centers and schools
Themes in icons by image-subject
Materials and technique of icon production
The artistic language of icons

From the Inside Flap:

The reality and mystery of icons is developed here in a way that is as fascinating as it is informative.

Approximately 500 illustrations show the whole spectrum of icon painting, beginning with the origins of Christian fine art and the most important historical expressions of Byzantine and Russian tradition. This book offers a broad overview of the pictorial themes and includes information about how different types of icons are produced and used.

The great masterpieces and the classical pictorial types are presented here with representative examples chosen to show the historical and geographical diversity of style, material, and use in the rich tapestry of the world of icons. Many of the illustrations were photographed specifically for this work. The reader will find here a clearly outlined and exemplary selection of the rich, vast, inexhaustible world of icons. All illustrations in this impressive volume are placed as closely as possible to the text. The author is an internationally acclaimed expert on icons. He has immersed himself in the presuppositions of the world in which icons were created. Icons are indeed not as other-worldly and ahistorical as they might first appear--a fact that is emphasized in this work, leading to many surprising discoveries.

And so the brilliantly formulated text of this extremely knowledgeable author is anything but the usual dry and dusty study of a specialist. This presentation has grown out of the whole experience of an academic life. It is inspired by the tense, often dramatic history of the world of icons, a fascinating and enigmatic world. Concise information is combined with lively stories. The details gain color and profile from unexpected places. The aesthetic focus on icons, which are also works of art, is transfigured through the depth of faith expressed in these "divine images."

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