The Museum of Old and New Art (Mona), Hobart, opened an exhibition on the evening of 29 September that will run until 1 April 2024 titled ‘Heavenly Beings: Icons of the Christian Orthodox World’.

The exhibition is of Orthodox icons and includes pieces from eleven Australian collections, including six public institutions: Mona, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Art Gallery of South Australia, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, the University of Sydney, and the Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology, Caboolture.  Contributions from private collectors come from Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney, and London.

There are more 140 icons dating from the 14^th to 19^th Centuries, and spanning a geographical area from Crete, Cyprus, and mainland Greece to Russia and Africa.  There are also a  number of Ethiopian, Egyptian, Syrian, Balkan, and Palestinian pieces.

L-R: Mother of God flanked by Saint Elian, Saint George, Holy Prophet Elijah and Saint Demetrius; Syria, c.1847–69. Nemeh Nasr al-Homsi (active c.1847–69); Egg tempera, gold leaf and gesso on wood, triptych; Private collection, Canberra; Photo: Mona/Jesse Hunniford.
Analepsis, or Ascension; Greece, c.1700; Egg tempera, gold leaf and gesso on wood; Private collection, Sydney; Photo: Mona/Jesse Hunniford.
Saint George and the Youth of Mytilene; Greece, mid-17th century; Egg tempera, gold leaf and gesso on wood; Private collection, Melbourne; Photo: Mona/Jesse Hunniford.

This exhibition is the most significant collection of Orthodox icons presented in Australia that can be recalled.  The Exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ballarat in 2014, curated by Gordon Morrison, was a significant event featuring the gift of John McCarthy AO to the Gallery. Richard Temple of London provided several pieces for the event.  The next event that occurred was a display at the Auckland Gallery Toi o Tāmaki last year, curated by Dr Sophie Matthiesson, which exhibition was the initiating event of ‘Heavenly Beings’ with Mona’s being a second iteration with more collectors contributing.

One arrives at Mona by ferry, from the Brooke St Wharf located between Salamanca and Constitution Dock, to climb 99 steps to reach the gallery.  Upon entering the art gallery, one descends to B3 to arrive at a spot called the ‘Void’ among walls of hewn sandstone resembling small cliffs as they run up to the level from which one entered.  From the Void, one walks past seating for Void patrons and there are gallery openings until one arrives at a place that appears in the heavens.  Light sky-blue floor, walls, and ceiling with depictions of fluffy cumulus clouds surround the visitor.  Off this space are doors into galleries, dark mysterious doorways through which glimpses of ‘heavenly objects’ can be seen.  These galleries are arranged such that they reflect the arrangement of the high-quality Exhibition catalogue.

The overall effect is surely one of surprise for the uninitiated and awe inspiring for the person who understands the genre.

One comment from the uninitiated was the surprise at the colours within the icons.  The foundation of these artworks can be traced back to the colours used in Greco-Roman frescoes and wall decoration that, today, one might associate with restorations at Pompei.  The exclaim of the colours also occurred in the late 19^th century when the Slavic Movement in Russia started cleaning icons and removing evidence of the late 17th and early 18th Century Europeanisation of Russia.  Having viewed Royal Doors from Pskov being returned to their original colour in St Petersburg, the removal of the light blue paint revealed gold backgrounds symbolising the glory of God and other rich colours of the Greco-Roman tradition.  A sense of the excitement of this discovery could be felt even when viewing the Royal Doors, like the amazement expressed of the colour in the icons on exhibition.

The icons depict images of people and biblical narratives. Some of these might be known.  St George slaying the dragon would be the most identifiable.  Surprise at the detail of the narrative in the artworks and memories of bible studies was reflected in another comments.

Icons such as the Pietà, Crete, 1500, from the workshop of Nikolaos Tzafouris might have taken just a quick glance as it has darker colourings, but it is an amazing item.  Mary sits on a rock throne, maybe symbolising the earth. Her head wear is of the Latin West style indicative of the influence of Venice on Crete after the fall of Constantinople.  Given the Latin inscription on the icon, possibly the patron for the work was Latin.  Crete was then producing icons that were going across the Mediterranean. Mary holds Jesus’s head in her right hand and her left arm supports his body in the small of his back.  Christ’s body appears weightless.  Mary’s face is one of sorrow.  The colour of Mary’s robe has likely faded but would have been the Purple of the Emperor’s Family.  The phrase attributed to the Imperial Family was ‘born in the Purple’. The purple dye known as Tyrian Purple, from a rare sea snail called ‘Bolinus brandaris’ or the ‘spiny-dye murex’, had been made since 1200BC by the Phoenicians of Tyre.  The dye eventually could only be used by the emperor. There is much to take in from physical appearance of this 45.3 x 36.3cm object.

At Mona the facility for visitors to save their tour on the electronic label device, the Mona O, means that extensive information about each work is not only available on site, within the exhibition, but also later at home (in Auckland, excellent conventional wall labels were used). Auckland Art Gallery produced a fine online e-catalogue but no hard copy. At Mona there is an excellent hard copy catalogue.  The large-format hard-cover version published by Mona is completely redesigned and includes essays and catalogue entries by Dr Matthiesson and a team of international specialist guest authors.

The exhibition is an important one in Australia.  It might be a mustard seed that grows into a wider interest in what is an important artform along with the theology embedded into each image (eikon).

As the visitor wanders through the gallery, making their way to the top of the building to breathe the sweet fresh air outside the Mona gallery building, visitors might ponder on what they have seen.  They might ponder on the several Nativity scenes in the Festive Gallery.  An image that has its own complexity and symbolism.  Take the levels or registries within the icon.  The shepherds, the Three Wise Men of the East, the cave in which Mother and Child are to be seen are in the middle registry.  The image of heavenly hosts is in the top registry.  In the bottom registry one can see the midwifes and Joseph speaking with a figure in a ‘hoodie’.  That figure is the devil tempting Joseph.  Mary and her child are in the middle registry as they are the connection between heaven and earth. The theology embedded here touches on the Incarnation at the time of the Annunciation.  But then some might recall that Abraham was also born in a cave in the town of Ur.  King Nimrod having been told of a prophecy that a child would overthrow him set him to murdering all newborn boys. Hints of King Harrod’s actions after the Three Wise men paid him a visit.  Ponder further.  Amathleah the mother of Abraham hid in a cave until she gave birth to her son, and he had grown slightly.  Joseph, Mary, Jesus and the midwife, Salome, fled to Egypt until Jesus had grown slightly and it was safer to return home. Mary is depicted in a cave in a Nativity icon when it is written in the East, but in the West the image will be more likely in a stable.  This pondering might move into contemplation.  Both Abraham and Jesus form the first and last covenant between God and his creature of Scripture and the New Testament.

There are several Annunciation images in the Exhibition.  Some might ponder which Annunciation image they might be. There are three possibilities reflecting the elements of the Annunciation accounts.  There are images of Mary’s questioning as to whom the Angel might be, Mary’s bewilderment at the suggestion she is to have a child and then the acceptance when she learns it is God’s wish. This last image is one where the Holy Spirit as a dove is seen.  Some of the theology embedded within these images includes free choice and obedience to God. Others might contemplate on the writings of St Irenaeus of Lyon who wrote of the New Eve and the New Adam.  This theology picked up by St Ephrem the Syrian in his Nativity Hymn written before Constantine took to establishing his new capital at Constantinople.

There is an eikon of St Sophia whose name is given to the most extraordinary building in Istanbul – Hagia Sophia.  Sophia means in the West ‘wisdom’, but the original Greek word translates to ‘clever, skillful, intelligent wise.’  An interesting figure whom it is written is included in the pronoun ‘we’ used in Genesis at the time of the creation of the creature from soil and breath.  Sophia is clearly mentioned in Proverbs. Some commentaries consider Sophia as the feminine part of God.  Emigre Russian Orthodox writers and more recently an American Orthodox have written about St Sophia, challenging works!

When these icons were used in the Orthodox liturgy each parishioner would have known what is touched on and more. Indeed, as early as 325 AD, talk in the marketplace concerned the Trinity. Christianity was a topic of currency and popular concern!  This did not abate as religious issues moved to Christology and the use of images. From the 14^th Century, when the first icon in the Exhibition is dated, only a century and a half were left for the great city of Constantinople. The iconoclastic period (726-87 and 815-43) was a period of destruction of icons and church artworks in areas within the control of Constantinople.   What the world has today of icons before this period are found in St Catherine’s Monastery at Mt Sinai, in Rome, and in Kiev.    The Fourth Crusade (1202-1204) that had looted the City and dispersed items across the West was over. The Palaiologos Dynasty followed this period during which the Palaiologan Renaissance occurred. The great Christian City in this period saw created frescoes and icons of great beauty, some of which remain in Istanbul today. 

The 14^th Century icon in the Exhibition is of the later period of the Palaeologan Renaissance and has an importance in a general sense.  It can be taken as a representation of icons generally.  The Byzantine world was not confronted by plagiarism, rather copying was the means of reproduction and dissemination of information.  Rote learning until the 11^th century was the method of learning.  In line with this, icons had a similar form, the main difference being the creative ability of the icon writer and maybe local peculiarities of style and colour.

Today, viewers of the Exhibition might, if they know the history, reflect on the content of the Ecumenical Council’s Canons that ended iconoclasms.  An outcome made possible by the determination of certain women.   How these Canons determined partly the elements of the image within the eikon and including the odd shapes of the Tree of Life, the distorted mountains (our external architecture), and the warped buildings (our internal architecture) and the reverse perspective.  

The creation story in Genesis tells us that when God divided the waters to make a space called a vault, it had waters below and waters above it.  The Vault was called the Heavens.  In 987 the Rus Ambassador, following a service held in Hagia Sophia, reported: “We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth, for surely there is no such splendour or beauty anywhere upon earth. We cannot describe it to you. Only we know that God dwells there among men, and that their service surpasses the worship of all other places. We cannot forget that beauty.”  The Orthodox Liturgy involves a combination of five senses to create a measure of prayer or contemplation for spiritual enlivenment.  The place for icons is in this setting where, they are images of a prototype to permit veneration.  From this comes the term ‘heavenly beings.’ 

Acknowledgment of David Walsh of Mona, Jane Clark, Dr Sophie Matthiesson, Gordon Morrison and John McCarthy and the staff of Mona is made of their endeavours for a significant exhibition.

Mona’s Heavenly Beings Exhibition is certainly worth a visit and so is further inquiry of eikons upon leaving.