11Story

19 January 2010

Saint Irena

 

Icon of Saint Irena. Maker / artist unknown. Greece, Before 2009 Metal, plastic, pigment, mounted on painted MDF. 22.2 x 17 x 2 cm Private lender

This example of an icon offers something very far from a visual likeness of the saint. Her painted face is tiny relative to its ‘encased’ surround, and like the latter is probably one of multiple copies.   Faithful replication of a prototype found efficacious in accessing the saint for help or protection is what devotees seek in objects of these kinds. Since this cannot be guaranteed even on closest inspection, a sticker on the reverse reads, in Greek and English:   PRECISE COPY OF BYZANTINE ICON INALTERABLE IN TIME   This example was purchased in 2009 in a small urban church in Romania in which icons like this are sold to local people as well as to worshippers and pilgrims from further afield.

 
 

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