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Joined: Aug 2008
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Glory to Jesus Christ!
My question is very simple:
What is the favorite type of icon in the Eastern Churches: Oklad( metallic- often silver) icons of regular wooden painted icons in church decoration in general?
I've seen both types, although the oklad icons seem much less numerous in Eastern Catholic churches vs Eastern Orthodox churches.
A sub-question to this one would be : What is the origin of the oklad icons?( Russia, Greece? and when did they first appear??).
As usual in Christ Jesus
Francois
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The wooden icon is under the oklad, which is just a protective sheathing.
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Actually, the oklad is less a protective than decorative covering, intended (as it's almost always made of precious metals) to demonstrate that the icon's importance is such that it's been vested in precious garb.
Truthfully, I suspect that there are likely some icons of such poor quality that theie beauty is enhanced by the oklad - in most cases, however, I find it gaudy and unattractive.
Many years,
Neil
"One day all our ethnic traits ... will have disappeared. Time itself is seeing to this. And so we can not think of our communities as ethnic parishes, ... unless we wish to assure the death of our community."
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I think François is asking where the sheathing custom came from. My two best icons are 19th-century Russian and have oklady. (The Russian sort of matches the English, making it easy to remember: they're clad!)
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Yes, That's right young fogey, my question was about the origin of the Oklad. So 19th century Russia if I understand correctly?
Francois
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I don't know if this is true about what is seen in the Eastern Churches of the US or not but one has to remember that a lot of the Icons' in the Soviet block countries were raided by the communists and any precious metals were removed from them, including the guilding. I have an Icon that has the nail marks on the sides from where and oklad was attached.
From my research over the years though I have found that anything covering an Icon was there to protect it only. The Black Madonna of Czestochowa has an oklad but is removed for proper veneration. Icons have to be accessible to all the faithful.
I am not a fan of the oklad as well though having said that my mother-in-law is blind and therefor the oklads are a wonderful way for her to experience the beauty of icons.
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Prior to the installation of electric lighting--and even afterwards, because of the large number of candles and oil lamps--Orthodox churches tend to be rather sooty, and that soot is soon deposited on the icons, dimming their colors and overlaying them with grime. The oklad protected most of the icon from damage, leaving exposed only the face and hands of the subject(s) as a rule, which tended to keep the icons from material harm.
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