Christian Church Decoration

Christian church is house of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the church building symbolizes the Heaven on earth. Therefore the main purpose of church architects, builders and artists is to create a unique harmonious space for prayer. So, when we enter a church, decorated with sacred images, we have a possibility of real prayer dialog with Christ, Holy Virgin Mary and other holy persons, represented around us.

We are used to decorate our living space in our homes with wallpapers, we paint our walls, and hang pictures and photos on them. Also our church, the House of Our Lord Jesus Christ in all the epoques was decorated too, but instead of photos or portraits in church we use sacred murals and icons.

We feel comfortable at home, when we see our friends and relatives images around us. Christian church has an old tradition to use the images of holy persons, who lost their lives for Christ's sake. The persons, represented on them, are not our family members or friends "in flesh", we rather remember them as our teachers, tutors or mentors.

Monumental wall paintings visually transform church building into a sacred and holy place. Monumental images of Christ, Theotokos and saints give us a possibility of real prayer dialog with them. Holy faces give us focal points, assist in prayer and create deep spiritual atmosphere of prayer and veneration.

The Holy celebrations are lived much deeper in a church, where we may participate them with all our senses, and first of all with our eyes. Visual contact and contemplation of sacred images, created in harmony with the architectural forms, remember us interior discipline, they call us to become like Christ and His saints, represented on walls and vaults.

We write every icon and every mural decoration in a special way to become active part of the church interior or exterior. Traditional methods help us to create images with spiritual harmony and peace. We can never create true sacred icons or harmonious monumental decoration in a church, if we do not remember their main purpose - to be objects of prayer. Therefore the sacred images must be created both with artistic inspiration and in accordance with certain rules of sacred art.

The sacred images are exceptionally important for Christian church, they make Gospel visible and understandable for everyone. I may even say, that sermon in words speaks to our mind, and the sermon in sacred images speaks to all our senses.

The sacred art for Christian church has an international language, understandable for any confession. We agree with Joseph cardinal Ratzinger, that "In early Christian art... there is no essential difference between East and West with regard to the question of images".

Two Words About The Harmony of Church Interior

In our Studio we try to follow medieval method of natural TrueFresco wall-painting (Buonfreso), because this way of work gives us all the possibilities for both harmonious and expressive work. We also communicate our contemporaries, who works in the field of monumental wall decoration, and we learn and share our knowledge.

One of the most important principles for monumental mural decoration, as I think, is the definition, given by of world-wide known mosaicist Alexander Karnaukhov, who created numerous monumental mosaic decorations all over the world. Once we were speaking about principles of monumental painting, he said simply: "mural painting is the breath of the wall".  I think this way of master's attitude to own work is really true and if we try to check any medieval piece of fresco or mosaic monumental decoration from this point of view, we see, that in a Christian church the harmony between the sacred architecture and sacred image must be the basic point.

The harmony between architectural forms, holy icons and mural decoration around us brings together all our senses and thought, gives us internal peace and quietness. When we pr 16-Aug-2007 10:21 PMarth, when we enter a decorated church, we feel it as another world, the world beyond ours.

Practically, it means, that any image, created for sacred church interior, has to be done just from the very beginning as a part of an entire ensemble, no sacred image can be painted as an isolated work of art.

That is why for every image, we plan to paint, for icons and for mural decoration, before we begin painting, we find the best solution. We study and see, what composition, what a kind of image would be the best for this church, fit this wall or that board, - this concrete place, or rather space. It is a complicated work, time consuming and difficult, but is extremely inspiring, when you work in accordance with sacred tradition of church-building and Christian iconography.

"Quality is evident in the honesty and genuineness of the materials that are care that goes into the creation of a work of art, and the personal stamp of the artist whose special gift produces a harmonious whole, a well crafted work".
- "Built of Living Stones: Art, Architecture, and Worship". Guidelines of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops § 146. Read more >>.

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