I first saw a picture of the
Umilenie or
Korsunskaya in the mid eighties. The facial expression and the unconditional love between mother and child made a deep and lasting impression on me. I am trying to recreate that impression.
This is a Bulgarian Umilenie, from
Backovo Monastery.
I made the icon board from our old kitchen counter in 2009, and then the process came to a halt. Still, the Korsunskaya never left my thoughts, so I started sketching (for a second time) on New Year's 2012. I intend to work on it every day, and let myself be surprized by the process itself.
The "towel" is called a rushnik [рушник - towel] in Ukranian or a salfetka[napkin] in Russian . This one comes from Kiev.
Excellent information with good photographs on salfetki/ruzhniki can be found on
http://icontraditions.com/display-of-icons-in-a-home
Main page:
http://icontraditions.com/
Still from Brothers Karamazov [Mosfilm 1969]
Why bother copying?
He [Birkin] had taken a Chinese
drawing of geese from the boudoir, and was copying it, with
much skill and vividness.
"You are copying the drawing," she [Hermione] said, standing near the
table, and looking down at his work. "Yes. How beautifully
you do it! You like it very much, don't you?"
"It's a marvellous drawing," he said.
"Is it? I'm so glad you like it, because I've always been
fond of it. The Chinese Ambassador gave it me."
"I know/' he said.
"But why do you copy it?" she asked, casual and sing-song.
"Why not do something original?"
"I want to know it," he replied. "One gets more of China,
copying this picture, than reading all the books."
DH Lawrence, Women in Love
