The Degraded Iconicity of the Icon. The Icon’s Materiality and Mechanical Reproduction

Abstract

The Degraded Iconicity of the Icon addresses the challenges facing the traditional doctrine of the icon in a society subsumed by a profane attitude towards the image, and the problems raised by the use of icon reproductions within the liturgical context of the Eastern Orthodox Church. To do so it keeps in mind that in traditional art, “functional and symbolic values coincide”(Ananda K. Coomaraswamy). In other words, the material properties of the traditional icon are not arbitrary, but based on metaphysical principles, and these properties are essential for the icon to function to its maximum potential as a “support” of prayer and contemplation. Throughout the paper it is kept in mind that there is an ideal icon, having “fullness of iconicity.” That is, one that retains not only the canonical pictorial forms, but also, as a concrete object, the material qualities of its traditional craftsmanship, thereby living up to its anagogic and symbolic function within the liturgical aesthetic experience. On the oth...