Customer Reviews

Holy Image, Hallowed Ground: Icons from Sinai (Getty Trust Publications: J. Paul Getty Museum)

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This volume is the companion to the recent Getty exhibition of original icons from the St. Catherine Monastery in the Sinai Desert, the presumed site of the Old Testament burning bush. The book provides the scholarly background on the ancient images, some going back to the 6th century and showing stylistic features common to Roman portraiture. The color illustrations are especially well done and true to the tones of the originals that I saw in Los Angeles. The book can be enjoyed simply for the aesthetics for the mesmerizing pictures, or for religious meditation, but also for insight into the historical development of early Christian practices. Given the lavish color printing in a large format, the price is quite reasonable.

The reproductions in this book are beautiful, the discussion intelligent and thorough. I bought and read it prior to visiting the exhibit, and thought that it provided 95% of the experience of actually being there.

The Getty, which has had an uneven history in its prior exhibits, really did a superb job on this one. The Getty website retains an excellent interactive description of the exhibition.

I had the impression that St. Catherine's was an isolated outpost at the base of Mt. Sinai. It is at the base of Mt. Sinai, but about an hour's drive from Sharm-El-Sheikh, a popular Egyptian resort town. Apparently tour buses make daily runs between the two places.

For a view of St. Catherine's at the end of the Nineteenth Century, consider reading The Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels.

Great book full of pictures and explanatory text. The purchase was prompted by a visit to the Getty Museum to view the exhibit. I was familiar with the monastary beforehand from a VHS tape and the exhibit provided a sense of being there and walking its holy and hallowed grounds. A time capsule of religious art and activity. The detail was very intricate and I marveled at the detail in the icons for those using crude and self-made art supplies. These icons are indeed a labor of love. They go back some 1400 years and have a span of 600.

The book serves to recollect my feelings at the exhibit, the next best thing to being at the monastary itself.

This is a good book no doubt, but...In this holy monastery there is much more valuable holy icons and should be presented in much more numbers.Maybe I`m asking to much, but with this treasure unpublished at all, it`s kinda sad to said. Quality of paper and photos are great and text with it. Good choice for meeting with this holy spot on the earth.

Wonderful book on good heavy paper. . . .photo quality excellent. . .very very informative. . .

The collection of icons form St. Catherine Monastery is very unique and the icons were relatively rarely seen by the Westerners. Before Getty organized the exhibit, you could see them only if you traveled there. Luckily, the icons and religious artifacts were exhibited at the Getty Center in 2007, and the exhibit was very well frequented.(I saw it three times, great objects, masterfully arranged, even some monks were visiting too, sweet cheerful souls). The exhibit was a success.

This exhibit catalog is a success too. As another reviewer already pointed out, the quality of reproduction is very close to original colors, really. There details are very crisp, and the text is very informative, not only for the general audience, but also for art historians not specializing in this field. Lots of information, and this exhibit was specially useful as icon painting is a very important link in the history of art. People often forget that icons were living continuation of traditions of Antiquity, and this fact is often forgotten when people talk about the rediscovery of Antiquity which started during the Renaissance in Italy.Or continuity of those traditions are forgotten in popular history, as not too many people are interested in Byzantine Empire after all. Also not too many of old icons survived attacks of iconoclasts, so, those precious gems preserved on Mt. Sinai Monastery are even more precious. The icons and artifacts tell us the story of early Christianity, and the role of images. The Mt Sinai Monastery needs to be more known, in my opinion, not only the Vatican Museums. This books helps to fill the gap.

Icons were believed to be windows to the divine, and also inhabited by the spirit of a person they depicted, were object of veneration and help in meditation. According to old tradition even the repros in the book would carry the great divine energy. And no doubt there are meditative qualities in stylization full of simplicity, yet quite often the icons are extremely sophisticated in compostion, usage of color and syntethising the shapes. But there is more than the icons: some pictures of interiors, religious artifacts, and pages of manuscripts, all those give even more insight into this quite forgotten world of early monasticism. I very recommend this book. Fine quality, price is good too, given the quality of information. If you want to refresh your memories of the exhibit, or had no opportunity to visit it but have serious interest in icons, or want to prepare yourself for the travel to visit the St. Catherine Monastery, this i really a good book.

I own this book. I am Jewish so the religious aspect of the book didn't impact me as much as the images. For those of you who love "outsider" or "naive" painting, the imagery and the creative solutions of the artists, filled me with joy.