Neo classical Icons and Art

For a few hundred years, the Russian Orthodox Church’s iconography was profoundly shaped by the West’s naturalistic style of painting in its religious art. During this period, miraculous myrrh-streaming icons in this style, such as “The Softener of Evil Hearts” were created. Inspired by this stylistic trajectory in the Church’s history of iconography as well as the classical arts training that Anna received in Florence, Italy, Anna has created a body of work that encompasses icons, drawings, and paintings made in what she broadly calls a “neoclassical” style. Her direct influences include 19th century Russian Orthodox icons and French paintings as well as Baroque and Renaissance art from Italy and Spain. Underlying every one of these styles, however, is always a Byzantine origin - whether it is evidenced in symbolic devices belonging to Byzantium or the anatomy of the figures whose enlarged eyes, small mouths, and/or elongated noses gently echo the features found in early Christianity’s ancient icons.