Getty Musuem Exhibits Religious Icons


has loomed above the streets of L.A., from billboards announcing an
exhibit at the Getty Museum, icons from the holy monastery of Saint
Catherine's in the Sinai, the great Egyptian desert.


Built in the sixth century, Saint Catherine houses the largest
collection of early Byzantine icons in the world. Behind the
monastery's fortress walls, these icons were as remote from Rome and


collection of early Byzantine icons in the world. Behind the
monastery's fortress walls, these icons were as remote from Rome and
Byzantium as they were from Los Angeles. Icons, these images, most of


monastery's fortress walls, these icons were as remote from Rome and
Byzantium as they were from Los Angeles. Icons, these images, most of
them, painted on wood, were preserved by distance and heredity, as


That the world's oldest collection of icons is housed in a monastery
at the foot of Mount Sinai poses an irony. It was at Sinai that God


gave Moses the Ten Commandments and warned the Jews that he was a
jealous god and forbade the making of idols. These icons from Saint
Catherine of Moses with the Prophet Elijah would have no place in any


In the eighth century, there is an iconoclastic movement that is a
movement to destroy icons by early Christians who considered the
making of icons to be a violation of God's command.


movement to destroy icons by early Christians who considered the
making of icons to be a violation of God's command.


and sentimental religious images, as well as by the magnificent. When
I look at these icons, part of what I see is a utility: They belong to
centuries of prayer.


but they are kept as exemplars of the fineness of human endeavor. An
icon has no more intrinsic value than a Dresden cup.


We are not meant to make these icons objects of religious worship, but
as aides to worship. We contemplate the eternal as we stare at these