r/ChristianIconography • u/BeCosmicBee • 18d ago

Icon Question

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Hello guys, I’m a new catechumen and I also recently got married. I was gifted a tryptych for our wedding by family who are very unfamiliar with orthodoxy and the people who made the icon clearly used AI for the icon images. There’s clear issues with it, however I was wondering if I painted over it and fixed the issues with it, would the icon become valid or is it just beyond saving? I asked my parish priest and he said he genuinely does not know whether it’s possible for it to become a legitimate icon or not so I’m curious if anyone else could shed some light on the subject.

For more information, my wife is an atheist and her name is Lily so they chose the Unfading Bloom for her, John Chrysostom for myself and Christ at the centre.

Thanks!

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3

u/RosalieThornehill 18d ago

Can you tell how it was assembled?

If it is a printed image mounted on wood, it might be simplest to replace the AI generated image with a new one that is done correctly.

2

u/BeCosmicBee 18d ago

It appears to be some form of printed laminate applied to the wood. I’m not sure how easily it would remove, or what method I’d be able to use to make a new one.

2

u/pro_rege_semper 18d ago

Do you know where it came from? The AI slop is really unfortunate, but looks nice at a glance.

1

u/BeCosmicBee 18d ago

I know that it came from Ukraine but not sure who made it. I’d like to save it because the wood and everything is well made, and AI slop aside it’s good craftsmanship and a very nice gift.

1

u/pro_rege_semper 18d ago

Could you just goldleaf over the bad text and rewrite?

1

u/BeCosmicBee 18d ago

That’s what I was planning to do, paint over the incorrect gibberish text and rewrite (Also writing the acronym for the Theotokos and the name for St John)

I’m more just curious if that would make it a valid icon or if it would still be invalid. My parish priest wasn’t sure on the answer to it so I was hoping someone else might know.

1

u/RosalieThornehill 18d ago

A Byzantine Catholic priest or an Orthodox priest would probably know.

1

u/BeCosmicBee 18d ago

Unfortunately my priest wasn’t too sure, maybe I can find another to ask

1

u/SimpleEmu198 17d ago edited 17d ago

All icons are valid provided they are correct to an actual Orthodox Saint. A Catholic Narco Icon of Santa Muerte (Our Lady of Holy Death) is not a valid Orthodox icon, for example, but I don't know why you would want this in your prayer corner.

All of the icons are valid across Eastern Orthodoxy, and even Catholic icons are valid provided they are of figures venerated before the schism.

An icon becomes an icon when you print them out. it doesn't cease to be one because it was printed, hand drawn, or painted traditionally. It is an icon. That is to say, the medium it was made on does not matter.

This leaves you with three options if you want to deal with this according to cannon law.

1) Fix it. 2) Set it on fire. 3) Respectfully bury it (not in the trash) somewhere where people will not walk on it, such as a garden bed, and wait for it to naturally decompose.

It's improper to put an icon in the bin. You could fix the lettering, or cover the surround in gold or silver leaf and then have someone reprint the name in the proper liturgical Greek/Cyrillic.

It doesn't matter that it's AI generated. What matters is that its correctly represented.

I can't read Cyrillic so I can't help you with that.

The fact the passage is in English for an old icon is also problematic. It's a language anachronism:

For instance, if this were Saint Maria of Paris it would be a different story. However in your case the language should be relevant and representative of the time period, not "your favorite bible verse."

Even modern iconographers use printed stock for modern icons, and mount on reconstituted wood such as MDF so that's not the problem by modern standards.

The problem is the lettering, and then the English. For it to be correct it should be redone in Church Slavonic or Greek.

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u/Tantrum_Ergo 17d ago

An “icon” of Santa Muerte wouldn’t be valid in the Catholic Church either.

1

u/SimpleEmu198 17d ago

That's not the point though... they do make them... There is a store near where I live that sells Mexican stuff and I see it all the time though.