Drawing & Gilding a Byzantine Icon

Writing the Divine | Drawing & Gilding a Byzantine Icon

With the icon board prepared, the next stage begins: establishing the sacred image through drawing and gilding.

In this second part of Writing the Divine, we follow the transition from the pure white gessoed surface to the first visible form of the icon, beginning with the drawing and continuing through the traditional preparation and application of gold.

The drawing is carefully transferred onto the prepared board, establishing the composition, proportions and lines that will guide every stage that follows. In Byzantine iconography, these lines are not simply an outline to be filled with colour. They carry the structure and rhythm of the image, drawing upon an established visual language shaped by centuries of iconographic tradition.

Once the drawing is established, attention turns to the areas that will receive gold leaf.

Layers of traditional bole are applied over the gesso and carefully prepared to create the foundation for gilding. Once applied, the gold is burnished, transforming the surface into the luminous field characteristic of Byzantine icons.

Like the preparation of the icon board, gilding demands patience. The final brilliance of the gold depends upon processes that largely disappear beneath it: the preparation of the ground, the application of the bole, the careful laying of each leaf and the gradual refinement of the surface.

At this stage, the icon remains without colour, yet much of its character has already emerged. Line establishes its form; gold establishes its sacred space.

Writing the Divine | Part B: Drawing & Gilding a Byzantine Icon follows this transformation, as the prepared board begins to reveal the image it was created to receive.