Icons from Mount Sinai Coming to California
Saturday June 24, 2006
J. Paul Getty Museum Is Sole Venue for Exhibition
by Stan Parchin
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Los Angeles' J. Paul Getty Museum announced on June 1, 2006 that the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai and Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities agreed to loan some 43 Byzantine icons and six manuscripts exclusively to the prestigious California institution for a special exhibition titled Holy Image, Hallowed Ground: Icons from Sinai. The magnificent devotional works of art will be on display from November 14, 2006 to March 4, 2007.
Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Emperor Justinian I (r. 527-565 A.D.) commissioned the building of the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine. (Its actual name is the Monastery of the Transfiguration). Construction of the complex, including its basilica and fortress, occurred between 527 and 565 A.D. on a remote part of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. The monastery (regarded sacred by the Christian, Jewish and Islamic religions) and its surrounding fortified areas are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For more than a millennium, Saint Catherine's monks ordered religious works of art or received them as gifts at this famous pilgrimage destination. The monastery houses numerous precious icons dating from the Sixth Century to the present, paintings and liturgical objects. Its library is second only to that of The Vatican in terms of its rare manuscript holdings.
Holy Image, Hallowed Ground... will offer the viewer a unique glimpse into the daily life of Saint Catherine's monks from medieval times to the present. The three sections of the show will explain: the importance of the icon and its holiness in the Orthodox Church; how the icon functions in prayer and liturgy; and the significance of the monastery as a pilgrimage site through works of art that depict the historic location and religious figures related to it. A ten-minute film that explores the interconnected roles of art and liturgy at Saint Catherine's Monastery will complement the exhibition. And a specially designed section of the installation will simulate the glorious interior of this institution's basilica.
For further reading:
Evans, Helen C. Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, Egypt:
A Photographic Essay.
New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004.
Image credit:
Unknown
Saint Macarius and a Cherub, Thirteenth Century
Byzantine
Tempera on panel
38.2 x 24.9 x 2.7 cm
(15 1/16 x 9 13/16 x 1 1/16 in.)
The Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine, Sinai, Egypt
Photography by Bruce M. White, 2005
by Stan Parchin
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Los Angeles' J. Paul Getty Museum announced on June 1, 2006 that the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai and Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities agreed to loan some 43 Byzantine icons and six manuscripts exclusively to the prestigious California institution for a special exhibition titled Holy Image, Hallowed Ground: Icons from Sinai. The magnificent devotional works of art will be on display from November 14, 2006 to March 4, 2007.
Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Emperor Justinian I (r. 527-565 A.D.) commissioned the building of the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine. (Its actual name is the Monastery of the Transfiguration). Construction of the complex, including its basilica and fortress, occurred between 527 and 565 A.D. on a remote part of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. The monastery (regarded sacred by the Christian, Jewish and Islamic religions) and its surrounding fortified areas are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For more than a millennium, Saint Catherine's monks ordered religious works of art or received them as gifts at this famous pilgrimage destination. The monastery houses numerous precious icons dating from the Sixth Century to the present, paintings and liturgical objects. Its library is second only to that of The Vatican in terms of its rare manuscript holdings.
Holy Image, Hallowed Ground... will offer the viewer a unique glimpse into the daily life of Saint Catherine's monks from medieval times to the present. The three sections of the show will explain: the importance of the icon and its holiness in the Orthodox Church; how the icon functions in prayer and liturgy; and the significance of the monastery as a pilgrimage site through works of art that depict the historic location and religious figures related to it. A ten-minute film that explores the interconnected roles of art and liturgy at Saint Catherine's Monastery will complement the exhibition. And a specially designed section of the installation will simulate the glorious interior of this institution's basilica.
For further reading:
Evans, Helen C. Saint Catherine's Monastery, Sinai, Egypt:
A Photographic Essay.
New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004.
Image credit:
Unknown
Saint Macarius and a Cherub, Thirteenth Century
Byzantine
Tempera on panel
38.2 x 24.9 x 2.7 cm
(15 1/16 x 9 13/16 x 1 1/16 in.)
The Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine, Sinai, Egypt
Photography by Bruce M. White, 2005
Comments
From what I’ve read the Getty certainly has a strength in good lecture programs, and this is probably an excellent oppurtunity. Also I hear the garden is phenomenal.
Its amazing that historians know so much about these works of this time period.
You’ve posted on many types of works, and it certainly is a pleasure following ur articles- what is your favorite period of art?
Dear Brittany,
Thank you for the compliment.
I enjoy a lot of different kinds of art. But my personal interests lie in ancient (Egyptian), (late-)medieval and Italian and Northern Renaissance art.
–Stan
This looks to be a fine show.
Will it be traveling?
No, and you saw some of the pieces already in the last Byzantine art special exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
You can view a preview about the Saint Catherine’s Monastery here:
http://www.getty.edu/art/installation_highlights/previews/sinai_video.html
I’m visiting a member of my family in Los angeles for a couple of months. I’m from Quebec, Canada and I write icons in Quebec. Where can I have info for taking Icons course close to here ?
Thank You
Joan Walsh