Painting Holiness: St. John Maximovitch

Painted in 2014 or 2015, with acrylic on canvas. St. John’s hair and beard are my favourite of all the hair and beards I’ve painted.

The style of St. John’s vestments is called polistavroi. In the post about St. Gregory Palamas’ icon I talked about this technique (which I didn’t know back then). My iconography teacher taught me how to do it in 2012 when I painted Christ the High Priest (a portion of his garments were done with this same technique). I fell in love with this technique and have since used it multiple times. 

To accomplish a cohesive look (so the folds of the garments flow as if it’s one piece of fabric) you must first paint the garment in one solid colour from start to finish – here I did it in blue. I used four shades of blue (darkest to lightest) and on top of each little section that was to become a red cross I applied the corresponding red shade (darkest red on the darkest blue part, and so on.) Perhaps my explanation is confusing but that’s how you do it.  Polistavroi is a pattern on vestments often seen in Byzantine icons.

Sanctity is not just a virtue. It is an attainment of such spiritual heights, that the abundance of God’s grace which fills the saint overflows on all who associate with him. Great is the saint’s state of bliss in which they dwell contemplating the Glory of God. Being filled with love for God and man, they are responsive to man’s needs, interceding before God and helping those who turn to them. -St. John Maximovitch

What I love most about that quotation is St. John describes the effect he himself has on others as a result of his own sanctity!