Three icons

    Abstract.  The cathedral nave had little decoration until 2016 when two painted icons were installed, with a third in 2018. One icon hangs above the nave altar table and shows Christ crucified on one side and Christ resurrected on the other. Two icons on nave pillars depict the Annunciation with one showing Gabriel and the other the Virgin Mary. The icons were painted by artists from Bethlehem.

     In 2016, artists from the Bethlehem Icon School painted a diptych of the Annunciation.[1] Mary is depicted as an Anglo-Saxon woman inspired by an image in a 13th-century English Psalter. The archangel Gabriel is inspired by the Lichfield Angel. Their appearance is in keeping with the 13th-century time of construction of the nave where they are positioned. Each icon is on a board of tulip wood, approximately 2230 mm x 720 mm, braced with oak struts. The board had a cotton cloth glued to its surface and then given many layers of a gesso made from chalk dust and animal glue. A very smooth clay was then applied where the gold leaf was to be added. Paint made from natural sources was added to egg yolk with a little water and vodka added as a preservative. The palette was kept simple with burnt sienna, golden ochre, Bavarian green, azurite and vermillion. Careful burnishing gave a variety of textures and finishes with reflective and sombre tones.

 

Icon of Mary, mother of Jesus

Mary is seated high on a raised throne and is shown weaving cloth. She faces across the nave to Gabriel and holds her right hand up as a way of showing surprise, acceptance and adoration. She has dropped the spindle in her left hand as if surprised. This intimates, she worked in the temple and weaved the red cloth that veiled and separated the Holy of Holies.[2] The curtain is drawn back to show Christ has entered into the Holy of Holies. The letters M,P, Θ(theta) and Y are first and last letters of a Greek word for Mother of God. The throne is designed like one shown in the Winchester Bible. The pillars have seven rings denoting the seven sacraments of the Christian church. The back of Mary’s house has three short spires referencing the cathedral. Mary’s feet is on a dais with a rug having motifs drawn from Palestinian embroidery, particularly from the Bethlehem area. On the ground are strewn cut flowers reflecting a tradition of honouring her by throwing flowers at her feet. The dais has a reversed perspective which means the vanishing point is near the viewer and this induces the eye to look to a wider horizon and a greater God.

 

Icon of Archangel Gabriel

      Gabriel is very similar to the depiction on the Lichfield Angel stone. His hands show the same two-fingered blessing and his feet are similarly positioned with one foot off the ground. Head and wings are nearly identical; though Gabriel’s face and eyes on the icon are more realistic. His clothes are not the same and have been updated so the folds and outer garment make more sense. The under-garment is blue whereas the stone angel tunic was coloured white and yellow. The dais he hovers above is plain and has an exaggerated reverse perspective. Again, there are strewn cut flowers around suggesting he is in the presence of Mary. The staff is simple, whereas the Lichfield Angel holds a stem with leaves.

             In 2018 the Bethlehem artists painted a crucifixion icon to hang above the nave altar and complete a triptych.[3] The cross measures 3 m x 2.55 m and has a resemblance to the shape of what has become the Chad Cross.[4] On the west face Christ is crucified and on the east face is resurrected. The risen Christ gives a trinitarian blessing with one hand whilst holding the St Chad’s gospels in the other. His nimbus has the letters O, W and N which in Greek are Omicron, Omega and Nu and translates as ‘the one who is’.[5] When these letters appear as part of a nimbus behind Jesus, it is an affirmation of Christ's divinity. This side is decorated with jewels based on the Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire Hoard. The crucified Christ has the letters alpha and omega above his arms. At the base is reference to Golgotha. The middle square of the cross has a panel, decorated like medieval floor tiles. The cross is covered with white lilies symbolising purity, rebirth, new beginnings and hope. It is the second coming and dates to 14th-century artwork.

 

Crucified Christ

                          

Centrepiece of the Risen Christ 

 

St Chad’s Cross

 

[1] Information is taken from a cathedral booklet titled, ‘The Lichfield Annunciation. Making of an Icon’.

[2] The veil separated the holy place from the most holy west end of Solomon’s temple where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. See Exodus  chapter 26, 33.

[3] It is a lasting memorial to the grief of World War I after 100 years.

[4] The Lichfield Cross is a combination of a potent cross and a quadrate cross with four crosslets, which appeared in the Arms of the episcopal see of Lichfield and Coventry during the time of Bishop Roger Clinton, 1129–1148. It is believed these Arms are related to the ancient Arms of the Kingdom of Jerusalem; a gold cross potent between four gold crosses crosslet on a silver field. The connection between the diocese and the Kingdom of Jerusalem is supposed to have arisen through Bishop Clinton who took the cross in 1147on his Crusade and died at Antioch in 1148. Some argue the cross derives from the carpet page layout in St Chad’s Gospel, but there are differences.

[5] This refers to Exodus chapter 3, 14, in which Moses asks for God's name and the response was ‘I am what I am’.