The Icon Workshop near Varlaam Monastery in Meteora, Greece demonstrates the egg-tempura technique. Egg-tempera, an art technique used since the 4th millennium before Christ, has been used continuously, age by age and time after time. Even today artisans copy old icons of Byzantine art.
The artisans start with a soft material prepared with honey and bone-clay, a piece of canvas. They hand draw onto the canvas a sketch taken from an original, old icon. First, they cover the background with a special blue and on the blue, they apply gold leaf with a soft brush and fix it with a glue/adhesive. The glue is an animal glue which has been made in the same way since the Olympic times (of rabbit bones and skin.) Next, they mix egg tempura, a mix of natural color-powdered pigments found in nature, egg yolk and vinegar. The palettes of color are all accidents of nature, free minerals like Egyptian blue, and real 24 karat gold, Gold leaf used in the icon is 22 microns (a human hair is 80 microns.) In the light the gold is almost transparent.
When the colors are ready, they apply the color to the canvas using many kinds of brushes. The colors are placed on the canvas from the darkest to the lightest. Very gradually the light comes. This layering has the very symbolic meaning of coming gradually from the dark to the light. In the tradition of the icon you will see the symbolic use of color. Jesus is dressed in two colors, inside with red outside with blue. The red depicts divinity and the blue depicts humanity. Mary is dressed in also dressed in two colors, but her attire inside is with blue and outside with red. For Mary, humanity is inside and divinity outside. We are dressed with Christ, the Apostle Paul said.
When the painting on the canvas is finished it is put on a wooden board, very often made from cypress root because the cypress tree is the symbol for the immortality of the soul.
Finally, on the blue, with a soft brush, they add on to the face of the frame, adding a patina to make it look old like the original. On the back they will add a certificate.
Byzantine egg-tempura, an expensive, important artistic technique used in portraits and murals from 4 BC to the 16th century, is still copied today.
| Later that evening we arrived for our lodging at Leptokaria Camp. Leptokaria Camp/”Argos Zodhiates” Bible Center is located in Leptokarya Pierias and it covers an area of about 10.5 acres, with the sea on one side and Mt. Olympus on the other. It is near the village of Leptokarya which has a beautiful coast line in Pieria. The Bible Center’s facilities were great. It was a cold night. |
After a delicious breakfast we rode in the bus from Leptokaria to Alexadroupolis, a 4 1/2 hr. drive.
