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Icon Carvings - They are Exquisitely Beautiful but Why Bother to Carve Them if We Can Paint Them?
New Liturgical Movement ^ | 10/15/13 | David Clayton

Posted on 10/15/2013 7:36:02 PM PDT by marshmallow

There have been a number of articles published recently, following a show in Moscow, of carved icons of a Russian couple Rashid and Inessa Azbuhanov (their website is here and h/t Deacon Paul Iacono of the Fra Angelico Institute for bring these to my attention). These are exquisite works and are of interest to me particularly because I have to admit I have never seen anything quite like them. I am told that they are re-establishing the tradition of carved icons. These portray form through a combination of color and relief and in this sense are a halfway house between pure relief carving, which uses shadow to describe form; and the painted icon that we are used to.

This presentation of course would be easily used for Western styles and I can see it very quickly adapted gothic style imagery and for the Western variants of the iconographic tradition, such as the Celtic. I would love to see some Catholic artists somewhere taking up the idea.


(Excerpt) Read more at newliturgicalmovement.org ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Orthodox Christian; Worship
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To: vladimir998
Defiantly Muslim geometry in this carving.


21 posted on 10/15/2013 8:33:51 PM PDT by mylife (Ted Cruz understands the law, and he does not fear the unlawful.)
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To: mylife
It's on the Great American Fish Company, in Morro Bay, CA.

Originally, there was a large redwood carving. It was huge.

It got stolen. I even found out who did it (years after it happened).

A much similar image is on the roof, but badly fading.

Just inside the door to the restaurant (referred to as GAFCO by the locals) is a relief carving of the basic image with the saying.

We can thank guys like Richard Henry Dana Jr. for the "sailors rights" portions of the [Title 46] shipping code. Around the 100's, for the most part, for the historical laws which he most influenced.

Dana never made it ashore at Morro Bay or Avila area, but his brother (or cousin?) married into a Spanish land grant family in the nearby area, leaving behind the what is the now historic "Dana Adobe" in Nipomo, CA.

Richard also wrote Two Years Before the Mast, detailing his experiences as a sailor in the hide-packing trade, arriving at California in 1836-1837. It's an interesting read. "Richard Henry Dana Jr., sometime after his return to the East Coast went on to become a lawyer, thus the tie-in with the shipping code which he influenced -- and if my memory was keener --- I could point to which articles of code he is credited with writing, as for treatment of sailors. He may have helped shape later laws, too, but that's even murkier to me, and no directly mentioned in the wiki link, either

22 posted on 10/15/2013 8:40:51 PM PDT by BlueDragon
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To: mylife
Ok, but the PHOTO in the original post I am referring to is from exactly where I'm telling you.
23 posted on 10/15/2013 8:44:31 PM PDT by BlueDragon
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To: BlueDragon

Great history.


24 posted on 10/15/2013 8:46:22 PM PDT by mylife (Ted Cruz understands the law, and he does not fear the unlawful.)
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To: BlueDragon

I think I need to read this one..

http://www.amazon.com/The-Shipcarvers-Handbook-Traditional-Carvings/dp/0937822140/ref=pd_sim_b_3


25 posted on 10/15/2013 8:49:48 PM PDT by mylife (Ted Cruz understands the law, and he does not fear the unlawful.)
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To: mylife

I’m just saying the name is Muslim, not the art.


26 posted on 10/15/2013 8:51:00 PM PDT by vladimir998
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To: mylife
Possibly Brooks adapted his own first carving of that from earlier images that had been knocking around for some time. That would make sense.

I think I asked him once, or asked another...and they may have said, something along those lines, now that I'm thinking about it.

The man was a pretty good carver, back when he was just a young man.

The same guy who painted the image in the first pic which you posted -- carved the mold for those late 1960's early 70's plastic [and fake] half-kegs (beer, I think some of the first were made for Old Milwaukee?) which were sold to home consumer.

You might remember those things? It was more like a fourth of an old keg would appear to be jutting from a wall, but all it was was plastic mockup of a wooden keg with exaggerated grain and too large of boards. I think the whole idea came about from a marketer wanting to sell taps and home draft beer supplies, and needed something to cover up the holes needed put in walls to snake the tubing through. It was Bob Brooks first paying job, creating "art" as it were. The man went on to support himself with art, pretty much for the rest of his life.

I can't find a picture online, but I recall when there was one of those things in a house a couple of doors down from where I'm now sitting.

Small world

27 posted on 10/15/2013 9:10:54 PM PDT by BlueDragon
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To: vladimir998

The art is orthodox, which has a confluence with the muslims in the balkans and the baltic.

At anyrate, I just stopped by for the art.


28 posted on 10/15/2013 9:12:46 PM PDT by mylife (Ted Cruz understands the law, and he does not fear the unlawful.)
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To: All

As why do we carve stuff rather than paint it?

Hand oils preserve the wood.

They stain paint, but its OK on painted carvings.
Im fact I try to age them so the paint is faded and yellowed but preserved in oil.


29 posted on 10/15/2013 9:15:55 PM PDT by mylife (Ted Cruz understands the law, and he does not fear the unlawful.)
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To: mylife

Carvings are tactile.


30 posted on 10/15/2013 9:16:40 PM PDT by mylife (Ted Cruz understands the law, and he does not fear the unlawful.)
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To: marshmallow

carving is easier...if you want to carve an elephant...get block of stone and just knock off any chunk that doesn’t look like an elephant....easy!


31 posted on 10/15/2013 9:30:50 PM PDT by terycarl
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To: mylife
Another look at the first image http://fineartamerica.com/featured/free-trade-and-sailors-rights-barbara-snyder.html
32 posted on 10/15/2013 9:36:06 PM PDT by BlueDragon
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To: BlueDragon

The theme sings to my heart.


33 posted on 10/15/2013 9:48:32 PM PDT by mylife (Ted Cruz understands the law, and he does not fear the unlawful.)
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To: marshmallow


Wow! What gorgeous artwork to wake up to.
I think I've found my favorite. Thank you!

http://www.azbuhanov.ru/icones
34 posted on 10/16/2013 2:10:35 AM PDT by mlizzy (If people spent an hour a week in Eucharistic adoration, abortion would be ended. --Mother Teresa)
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To: mylife

That photo is like porn to me. I LOVE woodcarving. I am very, very bad at it, yet I still keep buying old tools online and plod on trying to make something I like. Lately I suspect I merely have a fetish for antique tools. Got a wonderful collection of them now. I keep them where I can see them, yet the things I’ve made with them are always in a box somewhere.


35 posted on 10/16/2013 5:19:54 AM PDT by HomeAtLast (The original Tea Party entailed a willingness to do without some tea.)
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To: mylife

Baltic? There were no Muslims on the Baltic.


36 posted on 10/16/2013 5:49:12 AM PDT by vladimir998
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To: mlizzy
Just putting them here so I'll know where to find them when I want them. Wonderful, heart-melting. PRAISE GOD FOR SUCH BEAUTIFUL THINGS.


37 posted on 10/16/2013 11:23:55 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ("More honorable than the Cherubim, and more glorious, beyond compare, than the Seraphim....")
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To: HomeAtLast

Are your tools razor sharp?


38 posted on 10/16/2013 3:54:36 PM PDT by mylife (Ted Cruz understands the law, and he does not fear the unlawful.)
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To: Mrs. Don-o
We Become What We Contemplate

Philosophers, psychologists and saints agree that we become what we contemplate. Look at goodness and you will become good. Look at beauty and you will become beautiful. Look at truth and you will become true. Look at purity and you will become pure... -Fr. Mark Kirby

http://www.azbuhanov.ru/icones
39 posted on 10/18/2013 2:01:07 AM PDT by mlizzy (If people spent an hour a week in Eucharistic adoration, abortion would be ended. --Mother Teresa)
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To: mlizzy

Thank you so much, mlizzy!


40 posted on 10/18/2013 4:57:12 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ("Acquire the Holy Spirit, and then thousands around you will be saved. " - St. Seraphim of Sarov)
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