icon [Gr. eikon=image], single image created as a focal point of religious veneration, especially a painted or carved portable object of the Orthodox Eastern faith. Icons commonly represent Christ Pantocrator, the Virgin as Queen of the Heavens, or, less frequently, the saints; since the 6th cent. they have been considered an aid to the devotee in making his prayers heard by the holy figure represented in the icon. The icon grew out of the mosaic and fresco tradition of early Byzantine art (see Byzantine art and architecture Byzantine art and architecture, works of art and structures works produced in the city of Byzantium after Constantine made it the capital of the Roman Empire (A.D.
..... Click the link for more information. ). It was used to decorate the wall and floor surfaces of churches, baptisteries, and sepulchers, and later was carried on standards in time of war and in religious processions. Although the art form was in common use by the end of the 5th cent., early monuments have been lost, largely because of their destruction during the iconoclastic controversy (726–843; see iconoclasm iconoclasm [Gr.,=image breaking], opposition to the religious use of images. Veneration of pictures and statues symbolizing sacred figures, Christian doctrine, and biblical events was an early feature of Christian worship (see iconography; catacombs).
..... Click the link for more information. ). Little has survived that was created before the 10th cent. Byzantine icons were produced in great numbers until 1453, when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire. The practice was transplanted to Russia, where icons were made until the Revolution (see Russian art and architecture Russian art and architecture, the artistic and architectural production of the geographical area of Russia. Early Christian Works
With the Christianization of Russia in the late 10th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. ). The anonymous artists of the Orthodox Eastern faith were concerned not with the conquest of space and movement as seen in the development of Western painting but instead with the portrayal of the symbolic or mystical aspects of the divine being. The stiff and conventionalized appearance of icons may bear some relationship to the two-dimensional, ornamental quality of the Eastern tradition. It is this effect more than any other that causes the icons in Byzantine and later in Russian and Greek Orthodox art to appear unchanging through the centuries; there is, however, a stylistic evolution in Byzanto-Russian art that can be seen through variations of a standard theme by local schools rather than through the development of an art style by periods. The term icon came to mean "subject matter" in the 19th-century German school of art historical study, and from this meaning were derived the terms iconography iconography [Gr.,=image-drawing] or iconology [Gr.,=image-study], in art history, the study and interpretation of figural representations, either individual or symbolic, religious or secular; more broadly, the art of representation by pictures
..... Click the link for more information. and iconology.
In Eastern Orthodoxy, the representation of sacred persons or events in murals, mosaics, or paintings on wood. After the Iconoclastic Controversy of the 8th–9th century, which disputed the religious function and meaning of icons (see iconoclasm), the Eastern churches formulated an official doctrine that approved their use, stating that since God had assumed material form in the person of Jesus, he and other sacred personages could be represented in works of art. Usually depicting Jesus or Mary but also sometimes saints, icons are relied on as objects of veneration and as tools for instruction.
(2) (icon, small "i") A small, on-screen, graphic element that represents an application, file or hardware resource. Clicking the icon or touching it with the finger or stylus selects the item that the icon references. On Web pages, graphic elements are widely used to link to other pages, but are generally called "graphic links" rather than icons. See hypertext.
icon, ikon
icon [′ī‚kän]
Icon
..... Click the link for more information. ). It was used to decorate the wall and floor surfaces of churches, baptisteries, and sepulchers, and later was carried on standards in time of war and in religious processions. Although the art form was in common use by the end of the 5th cent., early monuments have been lost, largely because of their destruction during the iconoclastic controversy (726–843; see iconoclasm iconoclasm [Gr.,=image breaking], opposition to the religious use of images. Veneration of pictures and statues symbolizing sacred figures, Christian doctrine, and biblical events was an early feature of Christian worship (see iconography; catacombs).
..... Click the link for more information. ). Little has survived that was created before the 10th cent. Byzantine icons were produced in great numbers until 1453, when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire. The practice was transplanted to Russia, where icons were made until the Revolution (see Russian art and architecture Russian art and architecture, the artistic and architectural production of the geographical area of Russia. Early Christian Works
With the Christianization of Russia in the late 10th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. ). The anonymous artists of the Orthodox Eastern faith were concerned not with the conquest of space and movement as seen in the development of Western painting but instead with the portrayal of the symbolic or mystical aspects of the divine being. The stiff and conventionalized appearance of icons may bear some relationship to the two-dimensional, ornamental quality of the Eastern tradition. It is this effect more than any other that causes the icons in Byzantine and later in Russian and Greek Orthodox art to appear unchanging through the centuries; there is, however, a stylistic evolution in Byzanto-Russian art that can be seen through variations of a standard theme by local schools rather than through the development of an art style by periods. The term icon came to mean "subject matter" in the 19th-century German school of art historical study, and from this meaning were derived the terms iconography iconography [Gr.,=image-drawing] or iconology [Gr.,=image-study], in art history, the study and interpretation of figural representations, either individual or symbolic, religious or secular; more broadly, the art of representation by pictures
..... Click the link for more information. and iconology.
Bibliography
See A. Schröder, Introduction to Icons (tr. 1967); K. Weitzmann et al., ed., A Treasure of Icons (tr. 1968); H. Skrobucha, The World of Icons (tr. 1971); D. and T. T. Rice, Icons and Their History (1974).
icon
)
“Annunciation,” reverse of a double-sided painted panel icon from Constantinople, early …
(credit: Hirmer Fotoarchiv, Munchen)
icon
(1) (Icon, capital "I") A high-level programming language for Windows, Mac and Unix that is maintained by The University of Arizona at Tucson. Icon provides extensive string handling similar to languages such as SNOBOL, but uses ALGOL syntax and structure. Its unique features include the automatic generation of multiple outputs, such as a range of integers or strings, and goal-directed expressions that seek a successful outcome. Jcon is a Java-based implementation. For more information, visit www.cs.arizona.edu/icon.(2) (icon, small "i") A small, on-screen, graphic element that represents an application, file or hardware resource. Clicking the icon or touching it with the finger or stylus selects the item that the icon references. On Web pages, graphic elements are widely used to link to other pages, but are generally called "graphic links" rather than icons. See hypertext.
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| Icons on the iPhone |
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| These are application icons on the home screen of Apple's iPhone, which are activated by touch. Gently tapping an icon launches that application. |
icon, ikon
1. Art a representation of Christ, the Virgin Mary, or a saint, esp one painted in oil on a wooden panel, depicted in a traditional Byzantine style and venerated in the Eastern Church
2. Computing a pictorial representation of a facility available on a computer system, that enables the facility to be activated by means of a screen cursor rather than by a textual instruction
icon [′ī‚kän]
(computer science)
A symbolic representation of a computer function that appears on an electronic display and makes it possible to command this function by selecting the symbol.
| 1. | (language) | Icon - A descendant of SNOBOL4 with Pascal-like
syntax, produced by Griswold in the 1970's. Icon is a
general-purpose language with special features for string
scanning. It has dynamic types: records, sets, lists,
strings, tables. If has some object oriented features but
no modules or exceptions. It has a primitive Unix
interface. The central theme of Icon is the generator: when an expression is evaluated it may be suspended and later resumed, producing a result sequence of values until it fails. Resumption takes place implicitly in two contexts: iteration which is syntactically loop-like ('every-do'), and goal-directed evaluation in which a conditional expression automatically attempts to produce at least one result. Expressions that fail are used in lieu of Booleans. Data backtracking is supported by a reversible assignment. Icon also has co-expressions, which can be explicitly resumed at any time. Version 8.8 by Ralph Griswold <ralph@cs.arizona.edu> includes an interpreter, a compiler (for some platforms) and a library (v8.8). Icon has been ported to Amiga, Atari, CMS, Macintosh, Macintosh/MPW, MS-DOS, MVS, OS/2, Unix, VMS, Acorn. See also Ibpag2. ftp://cs.arizona.edu/icon/, MS-DOS FTP. Usenet newsgroup: news:comp.lang.icon. E-mail: <icon-project@cs.arizona.edu>, <mengarini@delphi.com>. Mailing list: icon-group@arizona.edu. ["The Icon Programmming Language", Ralph E. Griswold and Madge T. Griswold, Prentice Hall, seond edition, 1990]. ["The Implementation of the Icon Programmming Language", Ralph E. Griswold and Madge T. Griswold, Princeton University Press 1986]. | |
| 2. | (graphics) | icon - A small picture intended to represent something (a
file, directory, or action) in a graphical user interface.
When an icon is clicked on, some action is performed such as
opening a directory or aborting a file transfer. Icons are usually stored as bitmap images. Microsoft Windows uses a special bitmap format with file name extension ".ico" as well as embedding icons in executable (".exe") and Dynamically Linked Library (DLL) files. The term originates from Alan Kay's theory for designing interfaces which was primarily based on the work of Jerome Bruner. Bruner's second developmental stage, iconic, uses a system of representation that depends on visual or other sensory organization and upon the use of summarising images. IEEE publication. |
Icon
in the Christian religion (Orthodox and Catholic), in a broad sense, a representation of Jesus Christ, the Madonna, or the saints. The church considers icons to be sacred objects of worship. In a narrow sense, an icon is an easel painting that has a religious purpose. In the Catholic Church icons are predominantly sculptural in form; in the Orthodox Church they are images painted on wood.
Initially, the worship of icons was not a part of Christianity. It arose in the second century, flourishing during the fourth century despite the decree of the Council of Elvira of 306, which prohibited images in places of worship. Many of the church fathers spoke out against the worship of icons, and the Iconoclasts asserted that there was no dogmatic basis for this form of worship.
Icons, unlike idols, are not looked upon by the Christian Church as an identical representation of a deity, but as a symbol, mysteriously connected to it. An icon permits spiritual communication with its archetype and entrance into the supernatural world through an object of the real world. In church practice the worship of icons often develops into idolatry, and the material expression of the icon itself (including the paint) becomes the object of worship. Icons, like fetishes, are given magical properties. Believers often attribute specific powers to various icons that depict the same deity in different ways. For example, the icon of the grieving Madonna allegedly wards off sickness, and the icon of the unburnable Madonna protects against fires.
Icon worship helped strengthen the authority of the church and increase its wealth. Icons appear in Lamaism and several other religions.
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