| |
A Spiritual Artist of Many Colors
By Irene Burgo
 The
Rev. Richard Cannuli,O.S.A., director and curator of the Villanova University
Art Gallery in Connelly Center, and professor of studio art, is well-known
as a painter, iconographer and liturgical design consultant and art teacher.
His artistic capabilities range across the creative spectrum. He works
in multiple media--watercolor, tempera, oil, with wood, fabric and porcelain,
among others. His ability to work in different media attests to a talent
as varied as the subjects he depicts.
The world literally is his canvas. He has painted landscapes on site in
China, Italy, France, Russia, and scores of places in between. His canvasses
often reflect his travels. Overwhelmingly, a spiritual path has guided
much of his art. Most recently, he has exhibited this skill with a much
broader brush.
Father Cannuli has become an accomplished iconographer and stained glass
window designer. During the past five years, Father Cannuli has taught
a class on iconography at Villanova. His passion for the art of Byzantine
icons led him to pursue this interest in-depth. At the same time, during
the last few years, he has been utilizing his skills as a liturgical design
consultant. He has created watercolor designs for religious stained glass
windows. Using his watercolor sketches, stained glass window artisans
have transformed his designs into huge stained glass windows for several
churches in this country. In an interview for Villanova Magazine, he spoke
about the inspiration which led him to study the very precise art of iconography.
In Part II of this series that will appear in the Fall issue, Father Cannuli
will discuss his designs for stained glass windows.
Portraying Dimensions of Spiritual Beauty
Father Cannuli has been painting icons for more than two decades. “My
interest in art, especially seeing Duccio’s painting of the “Maestra”
in the Dumo, the Cathedral Museum of Siena, Italy, heightened my interest
in icons,” recalls Father Cannuli. “Going and seeing that
painting about 25 years ago inspired me to learn more about its prototype.
I had to know where this came from.” His curiosity led him to probe
in depth the earlier Byzantine icon paintings, a style he favors. “I
love the Byzantine style because they are so closely related to the art
of Siena, which I enjoy.”
He is virtually a self-taught iconographer. He began studying Byzantine
icons from books written in French and first attempted to paint them some
from the illustrations he saw. There were few books at the time and none
that he could find in English. Lessons were hard to come by, so he gained
skill through intensive self-study. He went to museums to see collections
of icons and tried on his own to paint several. “I knew the foundations,
I knew how to gesso. But I really didn’t know what I was doing,”
he says. “So many times, I started, wiped them out, and started
again. I didn’t really understand.” It was only about five
years ago that he took lessons from a professional master iconographer.
“When I painted my first icon, Archangel Michael, at the workshop,
I was hooked.”
 At
Villanova, he currently co-teaches, with Professor Tina Waldeier Bizzarro,
an adjunct professor of art history at Villanova, a course titled “Icons:
Making and Meaning.” The course is more than a lesson in painting.
It is oriented to helps students discover the meticulous process and spiritual
nature of painting or “writing icons.” “You don’t
actually paint an icon; you write an icon. That’s the correct term,”
he says. In class, Bizzarro discusses the history and tradition of icons,
and relates how the icon has been used within the contemporary context,
as an object. There are many pop-culture—popular icons in American
society--that are sold and marketed today. Father Cannuli teaches the
process of the tradition icon—how to transfer the image and how
to paint the icon.
What is an icon? People today associate icons with computers. The blinking
icon on the computer screen marks the user’s place in a text. Icons--the
art form--which comes from the Greek eikones, are sacred images. They
represent God, the Blessed Virgin, angels and saints. The term is most
often associated with wooden panel painting. Father Cannuli and his students
paint images on wooden boards. However, in Byzantium, icons were crafted
in all media, including marble, ivory, gemstone, precious metal, enamel,
and mosaic. They ranged in size from the miniature to the monumental.
Icons also can be more permanent in character, such as frescoes and mosaics
which are used to decorate churches. (Duccio, was a Sienese Renaissance
fresco painter. He painted his “Maestra” in the Byzantine
style. This painting, done between 1308-11, is a panel located in the
Cathedral Museum of Siena. One side is covered with scenes from the life
of Christ, including the temptation, the calling of Peter and Andrew,
and the entry into Jerusalem.) Working as a commissioned liturgical design
consultant, Father Cannuli has even created designs for mosaic icons used
in churches.
“An icon, in the religious sense, is an image of Christ, Mary or
the saints that is painted in a specific way,” he explains. “Usually,
it is a style of work like Russian or Byzantine or Greek-style icons.
There are many different schools —Albian, Cyprian, Cretan, for example.
The difference between the types of icons is the way they are painted.
The Byzantine and Russian icons are painted flat. They’re definitely
shapes that are painted, using different colors in a series of methodical
steps. The Greek icons are painted upright. Also, the various schools
of iconography teach it differently.”
Creating an icon is a spiritual journey. When he teaches class, Father
Cannuli gives students a thorough orientation into the disciplined and
very specific liturgical meaning behind the art. According to him, as
one improves one’s ability to write an icon, ideally, one’s
spiritual life should also improve.
The early church fathers or monks, who were the original painters of icons,
were able to totally immerse themselves in their subjects, as well as
in the painting process itself. They meditated, and they did not eat.
Father Richard does not discourage refreshment but he requires his students
to follow an unwavering sequence of steps. He encourages them to pray
and to meditate. Before each class, students recite Gennadios Limouris,
A Prayer Recited before Painting an Icon. An altar with an image of the
religious subject to be painted is set up in the studio classroom throughout
the semester. Students may spend a brief time in meditation whenever they
choose. To help them paint better, they are even encouraged pray to the
image of their icon for help. Professor Bizzarro begins each class with
a talk on the history of some area of the Byzantine Empire or the history
of icons.
Despite the spiritual nature of the subject matter, class sessions are
informal and fun. “The students love it,” says Father Cannuli.
Icon subjects are painted in hierarchical order. That means all students
first paint the Archangel Michael, who is like God. He is mentioned in
the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament as one of the Kings of Heaven,
as protector of Israel. Traditional prayers exist for recitation before
and during the writing of an icon. The early church fathers said prayers
for the consecration of the icon painter. A prayer is also said, as a
blessed for a sacred picture when the icon is completed. Father Cannuli
shares these prayers with his students.
A Transforming Experience
 “Iconography
is the way to God,” he says. That’s why there is a hierarchy
is involved. One begins with the angels and works his or her way up to
God.” Through practice, students need to gain skill and proficiency
before they are able to paint the Blessed Virgin or Christ. “No
one begins with God. But no matter who the subject is, every single icon
is a reflection of Christ. The icon itself is the self talking to God.
We “read” icons like we read the sacred scriptures. In the
Western Church, we sit and we listen or read Holy Scriptures. In the Eastern
Church, the faithful sit and they gaze—they look at the icon, so
the icon becomes the written word of God,” says Father Cannuli.
“Since icons are sacred images, in the Eastern Church they are considered
to be the visual word of God. We are allowed to paint the image of Christ
because we all are reflections of the image of God. Because Christ was
human. He had a Mother, and He was human as well as Divine. His incarnation
gives us permission to paint His image and that of His Mother and the
saints. This [concise explanation] sums up very complicated theology in
a very few simple words.”
It is not easy, though, to summarize the spirituality or spiritual dimension
inherent in iconography. Students must be able to communicate with their
spiritual selves if they wish to paint icons successfully, says Father
Cannuli. Interestingly, both he and Professor Bizzarro have observed a
noticeable difference in their students’ attitudes by the end of
the semester. Those who have followed the iconic process correctly radiate
a palpable enhanced spirituality. “Spirituality is no religion,”
says Father Richard. “But if a student applies him or herself, does
the reading, and tries with their whole being, they start to change, and
I can start to see it. It usually happens after mid-term break when they
see their icons start to take on a life. It is where you are spiritually
that adds to your icon.”
In his own life, the years of serious self-study and concentration on
icons transformed him. Icons led Father Cannuli to achieve a deeper spirituality.
The intensity of the art combined with later professional study, ultimately
inspired him to study for the priesthood. Father had been an Augustinian
friar for many years.
“An icon is like carrying a photograph of a loved one,” he
says. “You carry it and you want to have contact with the image.
When I painted icons, I was fully engaged in the meditation and would
loose track of time. You spend whole days working and don’t realize
time is gone. So, in the process of reading the icons, looking, studying
and understanding them, I was in communion with them. This raised the
question of my own spirituality—where I was going, what I was doing.
In a very short statement, that’s how I started to reconsider the
fact that maybe I should move forward. And after praying and meditating,
I consulted with a spiritual director.” The icons, he feels, were
responsible for his decision. He was ordained a priest in the Augustinian
Orderin October of in a ceremonial Mass in the St. Thomas of Villanova
Church on campus.
|
|
