Centuries of Art @ Your Library - An Introduction to Icons: Windows Into the Divine October 20, 2008

An Introduction to Icons: Windows into the Divine, kicks off this years "Centuries of Art @ Your Library," sponsored by This Century Gallery in partnership with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and Williamsburg Regional Library. The free illustrated lecture by Donald Schrader, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, will be presented on Monday, October 20 at 7:30 p.m. in the Williamsburg Library Theatre, 515 Scotland Street. In this lecture Dr. Schrader will introduce the theology behind the icon, briefly recount the history of icons in the West, and explain the meanings behind some of the most important individual types of religious image. Reservations are not needed for this free program. For more information, contact the library at (757) 259-4070 or This Century Gallery at 757-229-4949. This is the first of eight lectures to be presented in this years series.

Modern viewers often see the icon a type of religious image still in use in the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches as a charming and somewhat primitive type of painting. Nothing could be further from the truth: the icon, from its earliest inception, is a highly intellectual and consciously spiritualized image. The beliefs with which icons are infused are so powerful that they have led to their being outlawed for a time in the 8th and 9th centuries; but their meanings are so profound that their use has survived even the most concerted attempts to stifle them.

This series is made possible through This Century Art Gallery's partnership program with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA). It has been organized by the Office of Statewide Partnerships of the VMFA and is supported by the Paul Mellon Endowment.

Event submitted by Eventful.com on behalf of programs.