Old Stuff

From Sofia to Champaign

I love working at Wolfram Research (who is hiring, by the way) - it's a mini-United Nations right in the middle of our Illinois cornfields and prairies.

A few weeks ago I began clearing out some of our old books by selling them at work. A co-worker from Bulgaria came over to buy some old math books and noticed the ikons on my desk. They're both reproductions, one of the Russian Theotokos of Vladimir, the other an ikon of Mary and Christ with stylized crosses in the background and Christ holding a scroll with what looks like some sort of Slavic writing.

(Why ikons? They speak to me in a way that that old apotheosis of 1970's liturgical art, the felt-applique banner, doesn't. You youngins out there might want to click on this link to see what I'm talking about. Why on my desk at work? Good advice from a confessor.)

Anyway, we started discussing the ikons; he immediately recognized the one as Bulgarian and said he was going on vacation soon back to Bulgaria and would try to find an ikon to bring back for me! This morning he knocked on my cube partition (see Dilbert) - he's just back from Bulgaria and brought with him a beautiful little ikon as a gift.

It's actually two ikons. There are two small pieces of dark wood about 2 inches by 3 inches, held together by two tiny strips of leather nailed into the wood: it opens like a small book. On each of the outside covers a small leather rectangle has been affixed - probably glued - and the one on the front has a cross and some simple designs painted in white. The leather patch on the back is blank.

Inside on the left is a tiny ikon of Saint Michael the Archangel with wings, halo and sword, and a scroll on which the last word is the (old Slavonic?) word for "day" - the rest of the words are too small and indistinct to make out.

On the right is an ikon of Mary and Christ - the child is on the viewer's left, stretching up to touch his cheek to his mother's. Each ikon is written on a background of gold leaf.

This is one of those gifts that will "be cherished forever," as the advertisers say, but this is far better than anything an advertiser can sell.

Here are some quick scans. I'm no Photoshop expert: though these are life-sized, the color isn't quite right.

Posted by billw at September 9, 2002 07:53 AM | TrackBack