New York's answer to the Sistine Chapel: Priest spends six years covering every wall of his church in vivid byzantine style paintings
公開日:2021/11/03 / 最終更新日:2021/11/03
New York’s answer to the Sistine Chapel: Priest spends six years covering every wall of his church in vivid byzantine style religious paintings
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The religious scenes playing out on the interior walls of St. Stephen Serbian Orthodox Church could have been painted centuries ago.
Saints are seen balancing gilded halos; winged angels hug curved arches; calligraphic lettering help to tell ancient stories.
But the paint is barely dry.
Artist’s work: Iconographer and Reverend Theodore Jurewicz looks over the icons he’s painted over the last six years, which totally cover the interior of the St. Stephen Serbian Orthodox Church in Lackawanna, New York on Monday
This brick sanctuary on a street busy with shopping and fast food was, on and off for more than six years, the canvas of the Rev.Theodore Jurewicz as he quietly practiced an art form that had its beginnings in the Roman Empire.
Paintbrush and palette in hand, the Serbian Orthodox priest filled virtually every square inch of interior wall and ceiling with icons, sacred paintings depicting the life of Christ and the angels and saints.
There are hundreds of figures in the timeless Byzantine style, drawing the eye up, around and into nooks and crannies with vivid colors that pop from a slate blue backdrop.Even the thermostat and light switch plates have been transformed.
‘I was always interested in holy pictures when I was a child. I used to scribble on paper and on the walls,’ Jurewicz said. ‘It just grew on me, I guess.’
Near lifetime: Rev Jurewicz has been doing this work for about 40 years, often working on several Orthodox churches at a time
He has been doing this work for about 40 years, often working on several Orthodox churches at a time, commuting from his Erie, Pa., church and spending a few weeks before again moving on.
‘It’s nice,’ said the white-bearded Jurewicz, 63, who is matter-of-fact about his talent.’You come back rested. You see your mistakes and correct them.’
St. Stephen Serbian Orthodox Church was completed just in time for the May 5 Easter celebration.
‘We don’t worship icons … we use them to communicate with the person in the icon’
– Rev Theodore Jurewicz
The Rev. Rastko Trbuhovich, who has been there 28 years, said church leaders had casually talked about such a project for years before finally moving forward to raise funds for Landscape lacquer painting the $160,000 undertaking.
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