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Traditional iconography by Marek Czarnecki

Christ_the_Great_High_Priest-1
Jesus Christ, the Eternal High Priest with Apostles. Egg tempera and gold leaf on birch panel written by Marek Czarnecki, Seraphic Restorations.

Marek Czarnecki, a Polish-American from Meriden, Connecticut runs Seraphic Restorations and writes icons by commission and holds iconography workshops. Mr. Czarnecki studied under the tutelage of Russian Orthodox iconographer Ksenia Pokrovsky, within the Izograph School which she founded in Moscow. He received the 1996 & 2004 Artistís Fellowship from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, recieved the American Council for Polish Culture’s Jan de Rosen Award, and an apprenticeship grant funded by the National Endowment for the Arts through the Southern New England Traditional Arts Program.

Mr. Czarnecki’s studio is located at 464 Pratt Street Extension, Meriden CT. He can also be contacted by telephone at 203-238-7553.

He notes:

All icons are custom made to order. Special deliberation must be made by the client in selecting an appropriate image. The iconographer collaborates with the client to consider the careful integration of each icon into the specific architecture or ethnic tradition of the site where it will be placed.

The icons of this studio are made with natural materials; the foundation is linen glued to a wood panel, primed with a marble-based gesso. Painted with egg tempera mixed with natural earth and mineral pigments, the halos and backgrounds are gilded with 22 kt. gold. The icon is then varnished with copal resin.

Every effort is made to follow the canon of rubrics governing icon-writing.

Art, PNCC, ,

Art for the Conception of the B.V.M.

Conception of the Theotokos, Icon

Church Tradition teaches that St. Anna, the mother of the Virgin Mary, was the youngest daughter of the priest Nathan from Bethlehem, descended from the tribe of Levi. She married St. Joachim, who was a native of Galilee. For a long time St. Anna was childless, but after twenty years, through the fervent prayer of both spouses, an angel of the Lord announced to them that they would be the parents of a daughter, who would bring blessings to the whole human race. The Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary by St. Anna took place at Jerusalem.

The PNCC does not accept the teaching that the Mother of God was exempted from the consequences of ancestral sin (death, corruption, or sin) at the moment of her conception by virtue of the future merits of Her Son. Only Christ was born perfectly holy and sinless, as St. Ambrose of Milan teaches in Chapter Two of his Commentary on Luke. The Holy Virgin was like everyone else in her mortality, and in being subject to temptation, although she committed no personal sins. Mary was not a deified creature removed from the rest of humanity. If this were the case, she would not have been truly human, and the nature that Christ took from her would not have been truly human either. If Christ does not truly share our human nature, then the possibilty of our salvation is in doubt.

“Let Mary be in honor, but let worship be given to the Lord.” — Sergei Bulgakov

Art, Christian Witness, PNCC,

Art for All Saints Day

Synaxis of All Saints, Russian Icon, early 17th century

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels stood round the throne and round the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.”

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and whence have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night within his temple; and he who sits upon the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Revelation 7:9-17

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