Woman Clothed with the Sun: A Study for an Icon
Who
is she that looks forth like the dawn, fair as the moon, bright as the
sun, terrible as an army with banners? Song of Solomon 6.10
"And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery . . .She brought forth a male child, . . . but the child was caught up to God and his throne . . .the woman was given the wings of the great eagle that she might fly . . . into the wilderness; . . . then the Dragon was angry at the woman and made war on the rest of her offspring." -Revelation 12:1,2,5,14,17
21 December 1995
Alkmini Karavis
SPIRIT OF BYZANTIUM
Agias Lesvias Square
85500 Hora, Patmos GREECE
Dear Ms. Karavis,
Perhaps you remember me during the 1900th Anniversary Celebration of the writing of the Apokalypsis (the last book of the Christian "New Testament", also called "The Revelation of St. John") this past September - an American with a tall Greek friend from Athens [really, from Volos]. We returned several times during the week, but did not find you again. You mentioned that you would accept a commission to create an icon. Please accept the following request and the enclosed payment of 85,000 drachmas. I will leave the quality and size of the icon to your judgement.
I realize, in my brief study of eastern orthodox
iconography, that the believer holds that the first icons "are made
without hands" and that the iconographer only replicates that original
image without attaching any of his or her own personality. Thus, I hope
that to commission an icon [and, I suppose, your accepting a
commission] is not too much a secular idea which would offend the
devote iconographer. I wish to illustrate the image of the Woman of
Revelation 12. I believe it is she who connects us with the sacred
images of the feminine from prehistory with those many images and
apparitions [some 21,000+] since John's vision on Patmos. I have quoted
parts of the English text of the Apokalypsis [from the Revised Standard
Version] and will make specific graphic requests with personal
comments. I have attached copies of other such art as might assist the
artist as a starting point.
Comments regarding the image of the icon and its parts -
a] the woman should be shown descending from the heavens so her "clothes of the sun" would appear weightless and floating. The "sun" light surrounds her transparently with her features nearly, or completely, covered in "light". Perhaps the aurora borealis, or similar, surrounds her head.
b] the moon should be shown at crescent, not the full moon as some attached images show. This is my graphic preference (and consistent to the new moon of Artemis, Inanna and other prehistoric images.)
c] The crown of twelve stars should be literally "twelve stars". Some writers and artists have made "twelve stars" into images of the twelve signs of the zodiac, or the twelve apostles or the twelve patriarchs. Perhaps the stars are small shooting stars more like the arrows of huntress Artemis (see below). (I particularly like the attached ER Hughes' painting, "Night with her Train of Stars" where the ". . .Stars" are children.)
d] The woman should be shown very pregnant, in the midst of her "anguish for delivery", the child about to be born, with one hand over and the other hand under her belly- very reasonably, she is probably not exactly standing "with the moon under her feet".
e] Some later images
show the woman holding the baby as if Madonna and Christ Child, an idea
especially popular in Northern Europe during the 15th century,
apparently part the Mariology that accompanied the so-called "counter
Reformation". (Compare with the the image of Our Lady of Guadeloupe,
Mexico, at a similar time frame of 1531). This is certainly not the
image of John's dream - the child is taken directly to "God and his
throne", and the mother escapes the Dragon to the wilderness where she
has even more offspring (Rev. 12.17) - this mother never holds her
child.
f] The wings of the eagle are not given to the woman until after the birth of her son to help her escape from the Dragon into the wilderness. Graphically I prefer the wings to be near by - ready for attachment, not yet attached. I suggest the four wings as Ezekiel's eagle faced cherubim [Ezekiel 1] and also note Ezekiel 17's "great eagle with great wings, long winged, full of feathers, which had divers colors.." [verse 3]. As the wings are not yet attached, they might be used as purely graphic elements - in the corners or as borders, perhaps swirling around the woman - to symbolize the four corners of the earth or the four winds [Rev. 7:1]. The wings might be in the four colors of the Four Horsemen of Revelation 6 - white, red, black and pale - together with gold as if drawn by Klimt.
g] The wilderness -
harsh, mountainous, rough, stony - should be shown in the lower third
of the image. I think the Fortress-Monastery of St. John, its hills and
surrounding would be perfect. [Note: Ms. Karavis chose the view of the
sea from the Cave of the Apokalypsis that is the traditional writing
place of the Book of Revelation.]
h] Background to image might be dark blue at the top graduating to light as in an early morning sunrise.
Personal comments and background information, based on as yet, a very superficial study -
1] Contrary to my impression
(raised as a fundamentalist American Protestant), the island of Patmos
in John's time was not a deserted isle for Rome's exiles, but a
populated mid-point of active Mediterranean sea trade with at least
4000 inhabitants. Within 20 minutes walk of John's Cave of the
Apokalypsis was an important Temple to Artemis (complete with
priestesses?), which was destroyed in 1088 AD by monks to built the
summit site of the present Fortress-Monastery of St.
John. Continued>>