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IconsWhat is an Icon?The American Heritage Dictionary, Second College Edition, 1985 defines icon in the following way: Icon also Ikon n. 1. a. An Image; representation. b. A simile or symbol. 2. A representation or picture of a sacred Christion personage, itself regarded as sacred, esp. in the traditon of the Eatern Churches. [Lat. < Gk. eikon, likeness, image.] They are characterized by being familiar, common & universal or architypal. In short an icon is an image that is familiar and common to lots of people typically because there is some universal statement or appeal within that image. Icons can be artwork such as paintings or astronomy images such as the earth from outer space or advertising logos such as the the Michael Jordon silhouette. Icons are found in just about every discipline, & every culture. There are achitectural icons; there are scientific icons; there are sport icons; there are advertising icons; there are art icons. Disciplines may vary in the exact definition they attribute to "icons", but there are universal features to all icons, in all disciplines. Icons are by nature familiar & common. They are images of art, objects, logos or people which are repeated & well know by many cultures. Icons have an archetypal quality; they represent universal concepts, paradigms, principles and/or historical events. The archetypal quality is a necessary & vital part of every icon. The archetype is the universal quality of the icon & this quality makes an icon infamous. If every picture is a story, then icons are a library, revealing history, lessons & truth. Since all people relate to archetypes, icons have a special power. Every icon projects familiar, common and archetypal information to populations of people. Icons help us consider the impact of images upon the psych. Images have the power to tell special & vast amounts of information. The second definition refers to an branch of art that has historical roots in the Russian & Egyptian Christian church. Icons can be just those paintings which were created according to a particular and specified set of painting rules and style. A great movie on this type of icon painting is Andres Rubelev. This movie is about the great, and non-fictional Russian iconography, Andres Rubelev. This is a fantastic film for several reasons. One, it reveals a bit about icon painting; two, it reveals much about middle ages in Russian & three, it is a fabulous art film with great acting and spiritual analogies throughout. The Egyptian icon painting has a different history and style than the Russian. But it to is seeks to create images that are icons - images that are familiar and common to masses of people.
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