2006年VOA标准英语-Los Angeles Getty Museum Features Treasured Ico

By Mike O'Sullivan
Los Angeles
15 November 2006

Los Angeles residents are getting a glimpse of art treasures from the ancient monastery 1 of St. Catherine's in the Sinai desert. Mike O'Sullivan reports, the display of religious art at the J. Paul Getty Museum features some of the world's finest examples of icons 3, the images revered 4 by Eastern Orthodox Christians 5.

 
Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine, Sinai, Egypt 
Saint Catherine's Monastery is the repository of some of the world's oldest icons and illuminated 6 manuscripts. Built in the sixth century on orders of the Emperor Justinian, it is the world's oldest continuously operating monastery, and it looks today much as it did then - a massive fortress 7 in the shadow of Mt. Sinai. Inside, contemplative monks 8 carry on a tradition of prayer and study.

Father Justin, an American convert, is librarian at St. Catherine's. He grew up in El Paso, Texas, but now lives a very different life - where the sounds of liturgical 9 Greek are heard in the barren desert. He came to the Getty Museum for the opening.

 
Father Justin 
He says the place has a stark 10 beauty.

"It only rains there three or four times a year, so we have granite 11 mountains that soar with precipitous cliffs," Father Justin said. "And in the midst of this very harsh environment, it is also extremely beautiful. The sun is brilliant. The sky is what they call the sapphire 12 skies of Sinai. It is an intense blue. And in the midst of that you have the traditional site where God revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush, and where he gave the 10 commandments at the peak of Sinai."

 
Heavenly Ladder of Saint John Climacus - 12th century
Inside the monastery are some of the world's finest Greek and Russian icons, as well as rare ancient manuscripts and other liturgical objects. The Getty exhibition contains more than 60 items from the monastery, the largest number ever removed on loan from the site.

Robert Nelson, an art historian from Yale University, is co-curating the exhibition. He says a collection of treasures like this is rarely seen by the public.

"We have right next to my right arm here one of the great icons of the world, the icon 2 of St. Peter, which we understand was a gift by the emperor Justinian to the monastery in the sixth century," he said. "And that icon has been at the monastery until it [came] to Los Angeles."

 
Saint Peter - 6th century
The icon bears the realistic image of a white-haired bearded man. It is significant to art historians, Professor Nelson says, because it shows the transition from Roman art to the later stylized figures of Byzantine icons, which are often set against rich golden backgrounds.

Many icons like this were destroyed in the iconoclastic 13 movement of the eighth and ninth centuries, when the Byzantine church was bitterly divided over the veneration 14 of images. But those at St. Catherine's survived undisturbed, and the monastery now has the world's largest collection of early icons.

 
Saint John Chysostom with Liturgical Scroll 15 - late 12th century
St. Catherine's has been mostly untouched by centuries of political changes in the Middle East. Built by a Byzantine emperor, it came under the reign 16 of the Muslim Abbasid dynasty and a succession of other rulers. Co-curator Kristen Collins says its history is a tribute to the diplomacy 17 of its leaders.

"I think one of the most amazing things about this monastery has been its ability to endure," she said. "The monastery has a mosque 18 on its premises 19. The legend has it that when the Caliph Hakim was heading toward the monastery, cutting a swath across the Sinai destroying monasteries 20 in his path, the monks at Sinai build a mosque in three days, transformed guest quarters into this building. And the mosque remains 21 there to this day."

 
Saint Theodosia - early 13th century
The monastery was spared because of the gesture.

Father Justin says this art has a special role in the lives of Orthodox Christians, who believe that icons convey the spiritual reality that they portray 22.

"Standing 23 before the icon of a saint is a reflection of that saint and we ascend 24 from the physical depiction 25 to the spiritual presence of the saint himself," he said.

The monks of St. Catherine's Monastery were at first reluctant to let their treasures be displayed in a secular 26 atmosphere, apart from their role in daily devotions. But the monks decided 27 to share them so that others could benefit, and they worked closely with the museum on the details of transporting and displaying the icons.

 
Monks perform blessing 
Three monks from St. Catherine's, including the archbishop who serves as abbot, blessed the objects as the Getty Museum opened its exhibition.

Curators say they hope audiences will view these icons as both art treasures and objects deeply rooted in a spiritual tradition. The exhibition "Holy Image, Hallowed Ground: Icons from Sinai," will be shown at the Getty Museum through March 4.