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ORDER BOOK – Techniques of Icon and Wall Painting by Aidan Hart

‘Techniques of Icon and Wall Painting’ by Aidan Hart

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SOME ALTERNATE SELLERS
USA: The book is stocked by Liturgy Training Publications, Chicago, Illinois, (RRP $75) and can be bought online from them. Order online here.
USA: The book is also available from Holy Trinity Church Supplies
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Enquiries from distributers or retailers, email Tom Longford, Gracewing Publisher’s director

Icon Book Order

“Techniques of Icon and Wall Painting” by Aidan Hart

PRICE £40 PER BOOK PLUS P&P FOR YOUR REGION

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Please note: PayPal membership is NOT required

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ISBN 9780852442159
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SOME ALTERNATE SELLERS
USA: The book is now stocked by Holy Trinity Monastery Bookstore, NY, (RRP $70) and can be bought online or in store from them. Order online: Holy Trinity Monastery Bookstore
The book is now also stocked by Liturgy Training Publications, Chicago, Illinois, (RRP $70) and can be bought online from them. Order online: Liturgy Training Publications
Australasia: Purchase through the Australian distributor Freedom Publishers at Freedom Publishing
Sweden: Available from Peter Eggertz of the Katolsk Bokhandel, Kungstradgardsgatan 12, 111 47 Stockholm. Order online: Katolsk Bokhandel
Russia: Available from the publishers Kolomenskaya Versta in Petersburg. Order online: Kolomenskaya Versta

Enquiries from distributers or retailers, email Tom Longford, Gracewing Publisher’s director

Resources

This new page provides details of resources needed by icon painters and those interested in the meaning of icons. It includes makers of icon panels, art suppliers providing icon painting materials, book reviews, icon websites.

FRESCOES

Frescoes Produced by Commission: On this page are examples of frescoes undertaken for clients. Sites include private homes and chapels, monasteries and churches. Click on one of the icon photos to see a larger image in a new window.

All images are copyright and can not be used for any purpose without permission.

 

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email: mail@aidanharticons.com   |   phone: +44 (0)7910 246 774

Aidan Hart Icons Limited. Registered in England and Wales. Company Number: 6995115
Registered Office (not for business correspondence): Stowegate House, 37 Lombard Street, Lichfield, WS13 6DP, U.K.
All images are Copyright Aidan Hart © 2004-2012

BEAUTY SPIRIT MATTER Icons in the Modern World ORDER BOOK

‘BEAUTY SPIRIT MATTER: Icons in the Modern World’ by Aidan Hart

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UK: Only £3.95
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Enquiries from distributers or retailers, email Tom Longford, Gracewing Publisher’s director

 

OVERSEAS STOCKISTS:

USA: Liturgy Training Publications – Chicago, IL
USA: The book is also available from Holy Trinity Church Supplies
Australasia: Freedom Publishing

Consultancy & Design

CONSULTANCY & DESIGN SERVICES

As well as making liturgical art works, Aidan Hart Icons also offers design and consultation services to churches – Greek and Russian Orthodox but also Roman Catholic and Anglican.

Whether a parish is making a new church or remodelling an existing one, it is essential that the design of the interior be informed by a deep understanding of the church’s liturgical life, theology, and tradition, and by working experience of the full range of mediums traditionally used in church art, such as fresco, secco, panel iconography, wood and stone carving, mosaic, furniture design, metalwork, and embroidery.

With over twenty-five year’s experience in creating liturgical arts in all these mediums, Aidan Hart and his team are in a unique position to offer consultation and design services to create a unified and prayerful church interior.
Aidan Hart icons has not only created over 800 icon panels, but also frescoed a number of chapels, designed, made and erected numerous icon screens and altars in both wood and stone, designed large embroideries for Mount Athos, made silver lamps, and created a number of overall schemes for church interiors.

Liturgical worship is a sacred drama that unites all the arts in the love of God. The aim of these arts is to create a symphony in which all the players work together harmoniously. Church design needs understanding of all these liturgical arts. The church’s physical setting – the architecture, icons, wall paintings, mosaics, icon screen, furniture, and lighting – should all reinforce and support the liturgical life that occurs within that church: the chanting, the intoned liturgical texts, the censing, the ritual movements of the clergy and people.

As well having a range of skills within the company – chiefly panel icons painting, fresco, secco and wood and stone carving – we work closely with a range of other highly skilled craftsmen such as silversmiths and cabinetmakers who can execute our designs to the highest standards.

We also work with an architect who has a special interest and experience in church design.

Icon Screens

Commissioning an icon screen

Aidan Hart has over twenty years experience in designing and making icon screens, along with their icons. He is skilled in both stone and wood carving, and so can more readily make a screen that harmonizes with the church’s design and scale, and which meets the pastoral needs of the parish or monastery.
Very often he is also asked to design and make the church furniture, such as artophoria, reiiquaries, Holy Table (altar), lamps, and candlestands.

Some examples of the screens that he has made to date can be found below.

Please feel free to contact him for any inquiries.

A brief history of the icon screen can be found at the bottom of this page.

All images are copyright and can not be used for any purpose without permission.

 

Western Orthodox Saints

Western Orthodox Saints
This page and the following two (see the link at the bottom) contain icons of Irish saints, English saints, Scottish saints and British saints, created in various formats.

All images are copyright and can not be used for commercial purposes without permission.

Mounted Prints of British Saints for Sale
A small company based in Wales is now selling some mounted prints from a selection of my icons of British saints at a very reasonable price. To purchase, go to Icons of British Saints. In addition to this, a bespoke service is now available for mounting high quality Giclee prints of my icons – chosen by you – onto solid hardwood or beech plywood. Inquiries to mail@aidanharticons.com

 

BIOGRAPHY OF AIDAN HART

Aidan was born in England in 1957 and grew up in New Zealand. There he worked as a full-time sculptor for a number of years after completing a degree in English literature and a Diploma in Secondary Education teaching. In 1983 he became a member of the Orthodox Church, returned to live in England, and began to work as a professional iconographer. While continuing to work as an iconographer, from 1988 to 2000 he tested his vocation as a monk, including spending a total of two years on Mount Athos and six as a hermit in Shropshire, UK. This intense life of prayer had a profound effect on his work. He is now married with two children, his best icons yet.

To meet the liturgical needs of the churches commissioning him, over the past thirty years Aidan has gained extensive experience in a wide range of media: egg tempera panel painting; fresco; mosaic; stone and wood carving; illuminated manuscript painting; church furniture design.

Training others in liturgical arts has also been part of his work. In 2009 he founded and still teaches the part-time Icon Certificate programme for The Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts.  In 2012 Aidan was joined in his studio by the highly gifted artist, Martin Earle (www.martinearle.com). Since then, Martin has worked with Aidan on subsequent major projects, as well as on his own commissions. In 2018 the equally gifted Dr James Blackstone (www.dunstanicons.com) joined Aidan’s studio as an apprentice.

To meet growing demand (he has over 1200 commissioned works in private and church collections in over 25 countries of the world) and to help execute his designs for church furnishings, Aidan also works with a team of highly skilled craftspeople, including cabinetmakers, blacksmiths, and foundries.

In demand as a writer, lecturer and teacher, he has had numerous articles published on the subjects of iconography, ecology and Orthodox spirituality. In 2015 he was elected a Fellow of the Temenos Academy.

Aidan has published three books: Festal Icons: History and Meaning (2022); Techniques of Icon and Wall Painting (2011, 2015, also in Polish), the most extensive work on the subject, and Beauty Spirit Matter (2014), a collection of essays. All are published by Gracewing, Leominster.

TECHNIQUES OF ICON AND WALL PAINTING – New edition with index!

‘TECHNIQUES OF ICON AND WALL PAINTING: Egg Tempera, Fresco, Secco’ by Aidan Hart

The most comprehensive book to date on the techniques of icon and wall painting, this work has established itself as the seminal work on the subject. A Polish translation is now published, available via Amazon. 460 pages. Over 450 colour illustrations and over 160 drawings. 227mm x 278mm. Hard cover, £40. Gracewing Publishers. Second edition, now with index, 2015.

BUY NOW

click here to preview the book now

This is the most comprehensive book to date on the techniques of icon and wall painting. Illustrated by over 450 colour ilustrations and over 160 drawings, it is a source of pleasure and inspiration for the general reader as well as for the practising icon painter. More than just a technical manual, it sets artistic practice in the context of the Church’s spirituality and liturgy, with chapters on the theology and history of the icon, and the reasons behind the placement of wall paintings within churches.

An index for the book is now available to downloaded here.

Some comments:
“I know of no comparable work in the English language that deals with the technique of icon painting in such a thorough and comprehensive manner. Yet, while concerned with technique, the treatment is never merely technical. At every point we see how technique reveals a transfigured world. Spirituality and technology are combined together, so that each illuminates the other.”
From the Preface by Kallistos Ware, Metropolitan of Diokleia

“The wealth of information in this book makes it an indispensable reference not only for iconographers but also for any painter using egg tempera, fresco or secco. It covers all the necessary processes, including the making and gessoing of wooden panels, gilding, preparing pigments, the various techniques for painting in tempera, as well as lime plastering and fresco, right through to photographing finished artwork.”
From the Foreword by HRH The Prince of Wales

“This book makes known to us a craft, but more importantly it is the Confessio of a man who epitomizes the liturgical beauty of the Orthodox Church. He is full of joy and this same joy he communicates to us: with his heart he loves, and with his hands he fashions matter. He uses pencil, brush, chisel. He carves wood and stone, works with metal. He fashions form and colour. He manifests the Spirit. And he confesses that ‘The Word became flesh’. Thus you see not only how a holy icon is made within the Church, but also how the human person made as an icon of God struggles to become holy.”
Archimandrite Vasileios, Iviron Monastery, Mount Athos, Greece

“Aidan Hart combines the vision of the contemplatitive with the skill of a gifted artist. For those many people for whom Icons are a door into the divine there cannot be a better guide.”
Dr. Richard Chartres, Bishop of London

“An icon is visual theology, the Word of God. It can only be written in truth by one who seeks and loves this holy Word. Aidan Hart understands this to the depth.”
Sister Wendy Beckett, contemplative nun and author on art

Sculptures

Sculptures :
Before beginning iconography I had been a full-time sculptor. It was in fact the search for ways of expressing in sculpture the spiritual nature of the human person that led me to discover the icon tradition. Since 1983, apart from relief icon carvings, I have not done much sculpting in the round.

Recently however, while remaining committed to iconography as my main work, I have become interested in taking up again the task of exploring ways in which sculpted heads can suggest the divine image of God in man. Such works are not liturgical in function, but can play a role in the larger world of suggesting something of the spiritual dignity of the human person.

All images are copyright and can not be used for any purpose without permission. 

 

Panel Icons

Egg Tempera Icons

On this page are examples of icons painted for past clients. Click on one of the icon photos to see a larger image in a new window. See below for an explanation of the ancient technique used to paint them.

Prices vary according to size and complexity, so please contact Aidan at mail@aidanharticons.com or phone +44(0)7910 246 774 to discuss your ideas and get a quote.

A bespoke service is available for mounting high quality Giclee prints of his icons onto solid hardwood or beech plywood. 

All images are copyright and can not be used for any purpose without permission.

 

CV

  • 1957
  • Born in England
  • 1958-1983
  • Grew up in New Zealand
  • 1976
  • BA from the University of Auckland, NZ
  • 1977
  • Dip. Ed.
  • 1978-1983
  • Worked as a professional sculptor in Auckland
  • 1980-1983
  • Sculpting Tutor at The Auckland Society of Artists
  • 1983
  • On becoming a member of the Orthodox Church he returned to the U.K. and began full-time as an icon carver and painter
  • 1984,5,6
  • Visits Russia to study icons
  • 1987,8
  • Lives in Thessalonika, Greece to study modern Greek at the University of Aristotle and study Byzantine icons
  • 1993,4
  • Lives at Iviron Monastery, Mt Athos Greece with main work as monastery iconographer
  • 2002
  • Became visiting tutor at The Prince‘s School of Traditional Arts, London
  • 2005
  • Began lecturing as a visiting tutor at the Cambridge University International Summer Schools
  • 2009
  • Founded and teaches The Diploma in Icon and Wall Painting in Shropshire, run by The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts

SELECTED COMMISSIONS

2022

  • Icons of Christ and the Virgin for the Anglican monastery of The Servants of the Will of God, Crawley Down, UK.
  • Icon of St Mary Magdalen, for Magdalen College, Oxford.
  • Began large mosaic (20 x 2.6 metres/65’ x 8.5’) for a private house in Kuwait.
2021
  • Icon of St Anne, Mother of the Virgin, for Bene’t’s Church, Cambridge.
  • Icon of Chinese martyrs, Houston, Texas.
  • Brass choros chandelier (2.5 metres/8.2′ wide ) for St Gregory Palamas Monastrery, Ohio.
  • Archangel Michael, commissioned by The Museum of Russian Icons, Clinton, Massachusetts.
  • Frescoes of 17 roundels of saints for the Orthodox Church of the Holy Fathers, Shrewsbury, UK.

2020

  • All Hallows by the Tower, the oldest church in London. Icon of St Ethelburga.
  • Beda College, Rome. Icons of St Peter and St Paul.
  • St George’s Orthodox Church, Houston Texas. Mosaic of Christ with the Children (1.3 x 0.9 metres).
  • St Mary Magdalene Church, Oxford. Hospitality of Abraham icon.
  • St Clements, Cambridge, for the Orthodox parish of St Ephraim. Retractable ironwork icon screen, with its five icons (2019, 2020).

2019

  • Selby Abbey. Icon of St Germanos of Auxerre.

2018

  • Christian Heritage Centre, Stonyhurst College. Stone altar.
  • St. Helen’s Orthodox parish, Colchester, U.K. Consultant and designer for interior refurbishment.
  • His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, for St Mary’s, Anmer, Norfolk. Painted decoration for rood screen.

2017

  • Lancaster University chaplaincy (wall painting of the Transfiguration, 10.5 x 4.8 m.)
  • Canterbury Cathedral (icon of St Giles for the St Gabriel chapel)
  • Birkdale intermediate School, Auckland and The Hundertwasser Foundation, Vienna (bronze portrait bust of Hundertwasser)

2016

  • Houston, Texas, St George’s Orthodox Church (two mosaics 5×4 m.)
  • Private chapel, London (three mosaics)
  • Silver episcopal staff for His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Russia

2015

  • Cambridge University, Fisher House chapel (stone altar)
  • Consultant for refurbishment of Russian Orthodox Cathedral, London
  • Designed made had made chandelier and kiots for above.

2014

  • Lincoln Cathedral (stone sculpture, 2 metres high)
  • Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College chapel (icon of the Annunciation)
  • London, St Michael’s and All Angels, Bedford Park (icons, wrought iron screen)
  • Hexham Abbey (icons)

2013

  • Madrid, St Mary Magdalene Russian Orthodox Church (stone and wood carving, fourteen gold on copper festal panels for west doors)
  • Vatican, Pope Francis, gift from Archbishop of Canterbury (icon)
  • Cardiff, Roath, St Martin’s Church (mosaic)

2012

  • Leeds, Our Lady of Lourdes (fresco 9.5 x 5.5 metres)
  • Leeds, private chapel (icons and carved screen)

2009–2011

  • Amsterdam, St Nicholas Orthodox Church (icons, stone iconscreen)

2008

  • Minneapolis, USA, St Johns Abbey (icons)

2007

  • Keswick, (fresco private chapel)
  • Shrewsbury School (fresco in chapel)
  • Carlisle Cathedral (icon)

2006

  • Cardiff, Roath, St Martin’s (icons)

2005

  • Newcastle-on-Tyre Cathedral (two icons)

2004

  • HRH The Prince of Wales, Highgove, Gloucester (fresco chapel, icons)

2003

  • Evia, Greece (fresco private chapel)
  • Cumbria, UK (fresco private home)

2000–2009

  • Minnesota, USA, (illuminations for The St John’s Bible)

1999

  • Hereford Cathedral (icon)

1997

  • Lichfield Cathedral (icon)

1996–2012

  • Shrewsbury, Church of the Holy Fathers (iconscreen, fresco)

1995–2000

  • Shropshire, Monastery of St Anthony and Cuthbert (fresco chapel, icons)

1993–1994

  • Mount Athos, Iviron, Greece, (numerous works: carving, icons, design, silverwork)

1984–1992

  • Numerous icon and carving commissions in UK and abroad

1978–1983

  • Auckland, New Zealand (numerous church and private commissions for sculptures in bronze

 

 

Over 900 other commissioned works are found in churches and private collections in the UK and abroad, including in Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Spain, Turkey, USA, and The Vatican.

EXHIBITIONS: GROUP AND ONE MAN

  • 1978
  • Outreach, Auckland, NZ
  • 1979
  • Vision Gallery, Auckland, NZ
  • 1980
  • Denis Cohen Gallery, Auckland, NZ
  • 1982
  • Barry Stern Galleries, Sydney, Australia
  • 1991
  • Oriel 31, Newtown, Wales | Victoria Art Gallery, Bath | Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery
  • 1999
  • The Pumphouse, Auckland; works on vellum
  • 2000
  • Bear Steps Gallery, Shrewsbury | The Pieridis Gallery, Athens
  • 2004
  • Bear Steps Gallery, Shrewsbury | Art in Essence, Mandeville Place, London
  • 2005
  • Long and Ryle, London | Minneapolis Museum for The St John’s Bible, volumes I-III
  • 2006
  • The Victoria and Albert Museum, volume IV of The Saint John’s Bible | Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, USA, for St John‘s Bible volumes I-III | Tyler Museum of Art. Texas, St John‘s Bible | Museum of Biblical Image and Art, New York, St John‘s Bible | Library of Congress, Washington, DC, St John‘s Bible | “Sacred Iconography: A Living Tradition”, at The Prince‘s Foundation, London.
  • 2007
  • “Epiphany: Contemporary iconographers” at Wallspace Gallery, London.

ICON PANEL MAKERS

United Kingdom:

  • Dylan Hartley. Icon Boards Shop Email: dylan@dylanhartley.com

    A qualified cabinet-maker, Dylan Hartley makes high quality icon panels using tulipwood, with oak for the braces which are dovetailed and tapered in the traditional way to prevent warping. The panels are hollowed to 3mm, or to whatever depth is requested. They can be bought gessoed or ungessoed. Dylan Hartley Ltd. stock a wide range of sizes and also make to order. Flat birch plywood panels are also available. For more information and to purchase see Dylan Hartley Ltd

  • Dylan also runs icon board making and gessoing courses in his workshop in the beautiful Iron Bridge Gorge. See the ‘Workshops’ page for more information.

Europe:

  • Icone & Legno. www.iconelegno.it An Italian supplier of ready-made and bespoke panels, which come gessoed and sanded. Via Trevisit, 46, Cordenons, Italy. Phone: +39 (0)434 930418, Email: renato.icone@gmail.com

America:

  • Icon Boards. www.iconboards.com Supplies ready-made panels in a wide range of sizes, as well as bespoke panels. Stanislav Solovyev, 206 Jamaica Blvd, Endicot, NY-13760, U.S.A. Phone/Fax (607)754677.
  • Religious Supply. www.religious-supply.com This company imports boards made in Pskov monastery in Russia. Address:18 Hunter Lane, Ithaca NY 14850, U.S.A. Phone: 607 539-7940, Email: info@religious-supply.com

ICON MATERIALS SUPPLIERS

United Kingdom:

  • L. Cornelissen and Son Ltd., 105 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3RY. Phone 0207 6361045. www.cornelissen.com
  • AP Fitzpatrick, 142 Cambridge Heath Road, Bethnal Green, London E1 5QJ. Phone 0207 7900884. www.apfitzpatrick.co.uk
  • Stuart R. Stevenson, 68 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1M 5QA. Phone 0207 2531693. www.stuartstevenson.co.uk
  • Wright’s of Lymm, Warrington Lane, Lymm, Cheshire, WA13 OSA. Phone 01925 752226. www.stonehouses.co.uk For gold leaf and gilding tools.
  • Rosemary and Co. Makers of fine artists’ brushes. PO Box 372, Keighley, West Yorkshire, BD20 6WZ, U.K. Phone 01535 600090 www.rosemaryandco.com
  • The Gilder’s Warehouse Ltd., 5 Woodside Commercial estate, Thornwood, Epping, Essex, CM16 6LJ. Phone 01992 570453.

America:

OTHER PIGMENT PRODUCERS

  • Attila Gazo of Master Pigments www.masterpigments.com, produces azurite, malachite, orpiment, realgar, volkonskoite, cinnabar and more recently, lapis lazuli both in a simple ground powder form, but also the superior extraction process.

FULL-TIME AND PART-TIME COURSES IN ICONOGRAPHY AND RELATED LITURGICAL ARTS

  • Three year part-time Certificate in Icon Painting, run by The Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts, London. This is currently taught by Aidan Hart in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, U.K.. Lessons are three whole days a month, seven months each year. For further information click here. To be informed when applications open (early 2022), please email Aidan Hart at mail@aidanharticons.com.
  • Liturgical Icons. EastXWest Online Icon Course: Sister Theovouli, an Orthodox nun from the U.K., runs an online course, designed not just for budding iconographers but also for ‘priests, church architects, catechists and art teachers, and to all those for whom art is part of their spiritual journey’. www.exw-onlineiconcourse.org

WEBSITES OF OTHER CENTRES OFFERING OR ADVERTISING SHORT COURSES

United Kingdom:

  • Five-day courses run by Aidan Hart. Run in May and September. See the ‘Workshop’ page on this website,
  • The British Association of Iconographers, www.bai.org.uk They run a journal and a website, which includes details of all current icon courses in the UK.
  • The Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts. The school sporadically runs five-day courses in a range of arts related to iconography, such as gilding, illumination and calligraphy. https://princes-foundation.org/school-of-traditional-arts/open-programme

North America  

France:

  • www.atelier-st-andre.net Founded by Fr. Egon Sendler, it is a Roman Catholic icon studio, which sometimes runs courses in France.
  • www.atelierdamascene.fr Atelier Saint Jean Damascène, La Prade 26190, Saint Jean en Royans, France. Tel : 04 75 47 55 87

Italy:

  • MOSAIC ART SCHOOL – Ravenna, Italy   This established school runs excellent five-day courses on mosaic technique in Ravenna, their techniques based on those used in the many famous Byzantine mosaics found in that city.

Advertisers of international courses:

WEBSITES OF SOME CONTEMPORARY ICONOGRAPHERS

There are of course many iconographers with websites, so the following are just a selection of the sites that I particularly respect or have found useful:


USEFUL ICON REFERENCE WEBSITES

Icon Carvings

Carvings

On this page are examples of stone and woodcarvings and woodwork undertaken for clients. Click on one of the icon photos to see a larger image in a new window.

Prices vary according to size and complexity, so please contact Aidan at mail@aidanharticons.com or phone 01743 792555 to discuss your ideas and get a quote.

Further carvings may be seen at www.aidanhart.co.

All images are copyright and can not be used for any purpose without permission.

 

ICON RELATED BOOKS

Theology and history of the icon:

  • ‘TECHNIQUES OF ICON AND WALL PAINTING: egg tempera, fresco, secco’ by Aidan Hart. The most comprehensive book to date on the techniques of icon and wall painting. 460 pages. Over 450 colour illustrations and 160 drawings. 227mm x 278mm. Hard cover, £40.
  • Baggley, John. Festival Icons for the Christian Year. London: Mowbray, 2000. Very good at linking the icons to the Orthodox liturgical texts of the relevant feasts.
  • Cavarnos, Constantine. Byzantine Thought and Art. Boston, Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 1974. Also by the same author and publisher:
    – Fine Arts and Tradition: A presentation of Kontoglou’s teaching . Boston, Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 2004
    – Byzantine Sacred Art. Boston, Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 1985
    – Orthodox Iconography. Boston, Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 1977
    – Meetings with Kontoglou. Boston, Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies,1992.
  • Evdokimov, Paul. The Art of the Icon: a theology of beauty. Oakwood, St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1990. A very penetrating and broad analysis of icons, beauty and art.
  • Florensky, Pavel. Iconostasis. Oakwood, St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1996. A philosophical and highly original inquiry by a great polymath and priest, looking not just at the icon but at art in general.
  • Forest, Jim. Praying with Icons. Orbis Books, 1997. A good introduction, by a well known Orthodox writer and speaker.
  • John of Damascus (Saint).Three Treatises on the Divine Images. Trans. by Andrew Louth. St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press; 2003. Seminal texts by the main defender of icons against the iconoclasts (eighth century).
  • Mathew, Gervase. Byzantine Aesthetics. London: John Murray,1965. An excellent guide to the philosophy behind Byzantine aesthetics.
  • Ouspensky, Leonid. The Meaning of Icons. Oakwood: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1982. A classic work, this covers the main icon types, including the major feasts.
  • Ouspensky, Leonid. Theology of the Icon (Two volumes). Oakwood, St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1992. Primarily an historical account of icons.
  • Sendler, Egon, The Icon: Image of the Invisible. California: Oakwood Publications, 1988. An excellent introduction to the theology, style, history, and technique on icon painting. Out of print but due to be reprinted.
  • Tradigo, Alfredo. Icons and Saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church (A Guide to Imagery). An excellent guide to the main icon types, both of saints and feasts. Well illustrated and succint.
  • Theodore the Studite (Saint). On the Holy Icons. St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2003. Like St John of Damascus; work, a seminal primary text in defense of icons, written in the early ninth century.
  • Wood, Archimandrite Zacchaeus (ed.). A History of Icon Painting. Moscow, Grand-Holding Publishers and U.K: Orthodox Christian Books Ltd., 2005 (Russian edition in 2002). An excellent work that covers the history, theology and some technique of icon painting.

Technical works related to egg tempera painting:

  • ‘TECHNIQUES OF ICON AND WALL PAINTING: egg tempera, fresco, secco’ by Aidan Hart.. The most comprehensive book to date on the techniques of icon and wall painting. 460 pages. Over 450 colour illustrations and over 160 drawings. 227mm x 278mm. Hard cover, £40.
  • Bomford et al. Italian Painting before 1400. London: National Gallery, 2002. The catalogue of an exhibition which described the findings from scientific analysis concerning how these western European medieval paintings were created. Many of the materials and techniques would have been the same as used in icons.
  • Cennini, Cennino d’Andrea. The Craftsman’s Handbook (translated by Daniel Thompson). New York: Dover, 1960. Although not describing icon techniques as such, Cennini does describe many traditional techniques and materials doubtless used by iconographers.
  • Dionysius of Fourna. The Painter’s Manual of Dionysius of Fourna (translated by Paul Hetherington). London: Sagittarius Press, 1981. The most thorough of the manuals describing Greek icon and wall painting techniques. Written on Mount Athos 1730-1734.
  • Gottsegen, Mark David. The Painter’s Handbook. New York: Watson-Guptill, 2006. One of the best technical art books around, more up to date than the classic works by Mayer and Doerner. Highly recommended.
  • Mactaggart, Peter and Ann. Practical Gilding. Herts., England: Mac and Me Ltd., 1985. Small, but one of the best books on gilding techniques.
  • Mayer, Ralph. The Artist’s Handbook of Materials and Techniques. Faber and Faber, 1982. A classic. Much material superseded by Gottsegen, but still full of good information.
  • Ramos-Poqui, Guillem. The Technique of Icon Painting. Kent: Search Press Ltd. and Burnes and Oates,1990. A clear exposition of the author’s techniques. Out of print.
  • Sendler, Egon, S.J. The Icon, Image of the Invisible. California: Oakwood, 1988. An excellent introduction to the theology, style, history, and technique on icon painting. In much greater depth than most. Unusual in that it combines chapters on technique, theology and hisotry. Out of print but am told that it is due to be reprinted.
  • Theophilus. On Divers Arts. New York: Dover, 1979 (translated with notes by John G. Hawthorne, and Cyril Stanley Smith). An early twelfth century work, describing various art techniques including the Byzantine membrane technique of egg tempera.
  • Thompson, Daniel V. , Jr. The Practice of Tempera Painting. New York, Dover Publ., 1962. A detailed account of painting techniques, gessoing, and gilding.
  • Tsekoura, Lito (Editor). The Hidden Beauty of Icons. Athens: Ministry of Culture – 10th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities, 2004. A detailed scientific analysis of old icons. The Greek Orthodox Convent of Ormilia, Greece, has an extensive labarotory dedicated to analysing icons using state of the art equipment. They do invaluable work in revealing what pigments and layering systems were used to make the icons they study. There are surprising results.

Technical and historical works related to fresco, lime plaster, secco:

  • Dionysius of Fourna. The Painter’s Manual of Dionysius of Fourna (translated by Paul Hetherington). London: Sagittarius Press, 1981. The most thorough of the old manuals describing Greek icon and wall painting techniques. Written on Mount Athos 730-1734.
  • Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture (translated by Morris Hicky Morgan). NY: Dover, 1960. Written by the Roman architect in the first century B.C. Book VII contains much of interest on plastering techniques.
  • Winfield, David C. Byzantine Wall Painting Methods. A detailed analysis, largely based on the author’s extensive restoration and conservation of Byzantine wall paintings. Very difficult to find.

On the relationship of the icon with the arts:

  • Bychkov, Victor, The Aesthetic face of Being: Art in the Theology of Pavel Florensky. Crestwood, New York: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1993.
  • Cavarnos, Constantine. Byzantine Thought and Art, Belmont, Mass, USA: Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 1980.
  • Cavarnos, Constantine. Fine Arts and Tradition, Belmont, Mass, USA: Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 2004.
  • Evdokimov, Paul, The Art of the Icon: a theology of beauty. Oakwood, St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1990. A very penetrating and broad analysis of icons, beauty and art. More affirmative of non- iconographic art than Leonid Ouspensky’s works.
  • Florensky, Pavel, Iconostasis,. Crestwood, New York: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1996. A seminal work that helped restore traditional iconography in Russia in the early 20th century.
  • Hart, Aidan. www.aidanharticons.com. On the articles page there are various articles on the icon, art and the Orthodox spirituality.
  • Louth, Andrew. “Orthodoxy and Art,” in Walker. A et al (editors) Living Orthodoxy in the Modern World, London, SPCK, 1996. Pages 159-177. One

Orthodox response to the phenomenon of western art:

  • Michelis, P. A. , An Aesthetic Approach to Byzantine Art. Dufour Editions, USA (also Batsford UK), 1955. A classic work that interprates art history using the category of the sublime and not just beauty.
  • Michelis, P.A. . Aisthetikos: Essays in Art, Architecture and Aesthetics. Wayne State University, 1977. A refreshing series of essays in which the author, an estabished academic of aesthetics, considers aspects of 20th century art and architecture from a more spiritual vantage than most art scholars.
  • Rexine, John E., An Explorer of Realms of Art, Life, and Thought. Belmont, Mass, USA: Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 1985.
  • Sherrard, Philip, The Sacred in Life and Art. Ipswich, UK, Gorgonzola Press, 1990. An Orthodox thinker who attempts a spirtual analysis of the predicament of western art.

Useful books for quality large illustrations of icons:

  • “Hellenic Terni” series. Athens: Eidetic Athenian, 1994-1995. In Greek and also English. Difficult to find, but excellent for large reproductions and details:
    – Axiemastou-Potamianou, Myrtali. Byzantine Wall Paintings. 1994
    – Vokotopoulos, Panagiotis. Byzantine Icons, 1995
    – Galavaris, George. Byzantine Manuscript Illuminations, 1995
    – Xatzidaki, Nano. Byzantine Mosaics, 1994

CERTIFICATE ICON COURSE AT THE PRINCE’S FOUNDATION SCHOOL OF TRADITIONAL ARTS 2025-2028

This is a three year part-time course, consisting of three days a month for seven months of the year. It is run by the Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts, and taught by Aidan Hart in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, U.K. If you wish to be notified when applications are being accepted for the 2025/2028 programme, please email Aidan at mail@aidanharticons.com.

Twelve students are enrolled for the programme, with new intakes every three years. The applications for the 2025/2028 programme open around March in 2025, with the first session due to be held in October 2025.

Instruction will cover all the processes required to create traditional icons in egg tempera, including panel preparation, gessoing, gilding, pigment making, design principles and painting techniques. The practical work of the students will be placed in context through studies of masterpieces of icon painting, talks on theology and the relationship of iconography to church architecture and worship. Students will also be guided in ways of developing their skills in the contemporary business environment. Students are required to do at least a further four hours icon work a week at home.( If you have any questions about the Certificate please contact Aidan at mail@aidanharticons.com.

For further information, and how you can prepare for the application, download this pdf.

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