In March of 2007 I had the good fortune of visiting the Getty Museum in Los Angeles to visit the exhibit, “Holy Image/Hallowed Ground: Icons from Sinai.” This was a collection of icons on loan from the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai. Saint Catherine’s Monastery is the oldest continually inhabited Christian monastery in the world. Because of this and because of its isolated location, it has been somewhat immune from the ravages of persecution, the monastery’s collection of icons is one of the largest and oldest in Christendom. Diane Apostolos-Cappadona of Artcyclopedia gives a brief history of the monastery:
Formally established in the 6th century, the Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine exists at a site sacred to the three monotheistic traditions of the West. According to the Hebrew Scriptures, Moses’ encounter with the Burning Bush was here and continues to take root under the altar in the crypt. On the top of Mount Sinai where today pilgrims and hikers stand to watch the sun rise, Moses received the Ten Commandments. Saint Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, visited this place favored by desert hermits in 337. The Emperor Justinian supported the building of the formal monastery buildings, including the original Church of the Transfiguration, between 527-65. According to tradition, Muhammad visited the monastery and was given sanctuary; in turn he granted protection to the monastery complex and the monks – an “order of protection” secured in a written document and honored from 640.
It fascinated me as I entered the exhibit hall to view icons that I had seen in icon books for decades. The first icon to greet me was the renowned icon of Saint Peter, an encausitic icon painted in the sixth century. Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, the type of painting used in the Fayum mummy portraits in the earliest years of the Christian era, involves using heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added. The liquid/paste is then applied to the prepared panel. I was surprised to see that the icon was so large (36.6 inches x 20.9 inches). The style of this St. Catherine’s Monastery’s icon is similar to the consular diptychs of the Roman Empire in his carrying the cross-staff (scepter and keys (like a consular mappa). Three clipea at top echo consular triad of emperor, empress and co-consul. The figures above in this icon of St. Peter are St. Menas, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary. For more analysis of the icons from the monastery’s collection, visit this site.
Anyone who has visited a church or museum and seen original icons knows that prints, or even photos, of these icons cannot reproduce the colors, details, and subtlety of the original iconography. As I walked through the several rooms at the museum dedicated to the icons of the monastery, I was in awe. Not only were they exquisite from an artistic and historical viewpoint, the icons exuded a spiritual radiance, not only because of the holy subject matter, but also because of the honor the icons had received through the centuries, and the prayers which had been said before them in the spiritually dynamic monastery atmosphere.
The collection of icons from the monastery at the Getty exhibit represented the more famous of the monastery’s icons, but the true extent of the monastery’s collection is unknown, except to the supervising monks of the monastery, and perhaps a few priviledged art historians and scholars, the Getty staff among them. Some say the icons number over 2,000, large and small, some unique masterpieces while others are simple works of art.
The Getty exhibit was a win-win-win situation. Obviously the museum benefited financially and in prestige by hosting the icon exhibit. The monastery gained support for its foundation, and its icons were cleaned and well taken care of by the museum. And the public had a unique oportunity to view such a wonderful collection of icons which otherwise they would never perhaps have heard of.
I left the icon exhibit feeling educated, blessed and fulfilled. And I was left with a desire to visit not only St. Catherine’s Monastery to see more of it’s holy icons, frescoes, and illuminations, but to be in the sacred atmosphere which has been built and expanded by centuries of prayers and monastic life. Many thanks to the Getty Museum for having sponsored the wonderful collection of icons from the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Sinai.
Monastery Icons 