Tag: English

As a service to its readership, the Eikonikon website provides a comprehensive lexicon, currently only available in the Dutch language. You can find the link under the heading ‘general’ on the Eikonikon homepage. The Eikonikon Lexicon was written and illustrated by Robert de Caluwé, an orthodox priest and icon painter …

Have you ever asked yourself why the feast days of St Peter and St Paul are celebrated on the same day, June 29th, and why, in the 15th century, so many icons of these two apostles were painted? In the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England hangs an icon called The …

The Bible tells of two personages that carry the name John. The first John is referred to as John the Baptist in the Western tradition and John the Forerunner in the Eastern Orthodox Church. To distinguish John from his namesake, John the Baptist, the former, a disciple of Jesus, is …

We had been planning a month-long visit to France, when my sister wrote to me and said, “Let’s go to Israel instead, it’s been your dream for so long.” Indeed. I flew into Tel Aviv and while waiting for my sister to arrive, I heard joyous singing coming from the …

Wim van Loon was one of six speakers accompanying the 2013 exhibition, ‘Icons from Eikonikon’, held at the Stedelijk Museum in Vianen, a town in the Netherlands. Van Loon, a former editor of the magazine, ‘Eikonikon’, and a frequent visitor to the Greek monasteries on the peninsula Athos, opened the …

Leonid Alexandrovich Ouspensky (1902-1987) is regarded as the authority in iconographic circles; sometimes even referred to as ‘the father of contemporary iconography’. The path that led to this honor has everything to do with the myriad of experiences in his personal life and the quest he undertook in discovering the …

On the island of Crete – besides being a very fine holiday destination – there is much to see as regards icons and frescoes. You could say that it is a ‘mecca’ for icon painters.  Particularly in the western part of Crete, you can find many small churches and chapels …

In the month of December, with the moon shining through the leafless trees on the evening of December 5th, we began the night of the Feast of Saint Nicholas. There is actually very little known about this saint who is revered in many countries. He was probably born in Patras …

Every human life has a beginning, as each life reaches an end; a matter of biology but at the same time, a great miracle. The exhibition of Russian and Greek icons associated with the birth of new life, Miracle of Birth, added to this year’s Christmas holiday celebrations and was seen at …

“In Thee rejoices, Maiden, who are full of grace, all creation, the ranks of angelic hosts, and the lineage of mankind. A temple sanctified and a paradise of the mind, you are the boast of the chaste, from whom our God was incarnate and became a new-born child, yet he …

Six years ago, Peter van den Hoven wrote the following article about Saint Brendan, an adventurous and seafaring Irish monk well known in the Middle Ages but lesser known today. This is followed by a recent article by Henry Drost from the Dutch newspaper, the Harlinger Courant. The stories are …

In 2016, in the Dutch city of ’s-Hertogenbosch or Den Bosch, one of the city’s most famous residents from the distant past is being commemorated. We are, of course, talking about the illustrious medieval artist Jheronimus van Aken, who died 500 years ago, in 1516, in his hometown. Hieronymus Bosch, …

Throughout the year 2015, our Community at Taizé is celebrating the 75th anniversary of its foundation, and invites people to remember its founder, Brother Roger, 100 years after his birth and ten years since his passing to the life of eternity. The theme especially proposed for reflection this year is …

The icon of the Mother of God of Mount Carmel was painted by the Carmelite Sisters of the Monastery Cerreto in Italy (Fig. 1). The Mother of God is flanked by a quartet of important figures from the history of the Carmelite Order, which received ecclesiastical approval around 1207. The …

Among the activities surrounding the exhibition ‘Icons from Eikonikon’ the eponymous Dutch magazine devoted to Icons, which took place at the Stedelijk Museum in Vianen, the Netherlands, was a series of lectures. Peter van Dael, former professor of Art History at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, currently author, teacher and …