Introduction What is sacred Christian art? Illuminated Manuscripts in Christian Art What are the foundations of Christian art? Sacred buildings The Sanctuary The Sacred Image The Function of the Icon The Decadence of Christian Art The Renewal of Christian Art

slide 8 of 10 How does the icon function? "The doctrinal foundation of the icon determines not only its general orientation, its subject and its iconography, but also its formal language, its style. This style is the direct result of the function of the symbol: the picture must not seek to replace the object depicted, which surpasses it eminently; according to the words of Dionysius the Areopagite it must 'respect the distance that separates the intelligible from the sensible.'"