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BR. CLAUDE LANE, O.S.B. Written by Fr. Jeremy Driscoll, O.S.B November 21, 2002
In the expression "writing icons" there is already something that can be learned about what an icon is. Tradition has long used this designation in order to indicate that an icon is a visible manifestation of the content of the Sacred Scriptures. Thus, in an icon the artist is writing the scriptural content in form and color and story. The holiness of an icon and the presence of God that it imparts derive from the Scriptures. In the same way that God in Christ is incarnate and present to us in the Scriptures, so also is He present in the form, the color, and the narrative of the icon. When an icon is commissioned by a parish or some group or by an individual, Br. Claude always explains that those who want the icon must support him in prayer especially during the actual time that he is working on the icon. He himself must prepare with prayer and meditation, pondering the mystery of the faith or the saint he is to present. By surrounding the process with the prayer of the community and the iconographerÕs own prayer, it is to be hoped that the final product is really a gift from God, containing a special insight and revelation for those for whom it is produced. Each semester during the school year at Mount Angel Seminary a group of five or six seminarians makes its way to Br. Claude's studio in St. Joseph's Hall behind the monastery. They are beginning a semester long course with him in which they will learn from him the traditions of how to produce this sacred art. It is considered part of an iconographer's duty to pass on to others what he himself has learned. Watching the way Br. Claude works with these students reveals how he himself produces icons, for he is simply teaching them what he himself has learned. His studio is comprised of two rooms. The study, which contains books and iconographic reproductions, is dedicated to St. Joseph. The workroom, dedicated to St. Claude, has large tables, paints, brushes, and icon books. Each room has a small shrine dedicated to its patron. On the first day of class Br. Claude explains his twofold goal in undertaking this work for Mount Angel seminarians. The first is to teach future pastors how to appreciate and put to use the ancient art of the Church. The second is to fulfill his desire to surface future dedicated iconographers, men who will make a long-term commitment to practicing this craft with the aim of someday creating truly beautiful sacred art.
In any given semester Br. Claude's students all write the same icon, following a design that he has prepared in advance. He gives each student individual choices concerning color and highlighting as they go. In this way, though the subject matter is the same for all the students, each completed icon reveals a different dimension and insight into the theme, as well as revealing something unique about the new iconographer himself. When asked about how he got started with icons, Br. Claude identifies three separate stages of his formation. The first was when he was a boy of ten or eleven and would visit his maternal grandparents, who were ethnic Germans from Russia. He loved to listen to them speaking of life in the old village near Odessa. They were Catholics and did not use icons themselves, but they knew about them from the Ukrainian farmhands and housemaids they employed. Looking through picture books on Russia, his grandmother would explain to him the symbolism of the icons. Later he would copy the icons on scraps of wood using a BIC pen.
The third stage of Br. Claude's formation begins when Abbot Peter assigned him full time to this work. Until then, Br. Claude was for a period the library bookbinder and then manager of the Benedictine Press. Icons were done outside of work time. Now he could devote himself in all his working hours to the production of new icons. In these last ten years his production has been prolific, and his work is now known through the whole of the United States. The Benedictine Press at Mount Angel and, for a period, the Printery House of Conception Abbey have been printing the icons, making them widely available. Meanwhile, requests continue to come in and must take their place in line. The work cannot be rushed. And yet, sustained by the discipline of the regular rhythms of the monastic day, there is an iconographer steadily at work in St. Joseph's Hall behind the monastery at Mount Angel. |
ST. BENEDICT, Ore. -- Br. Claude Lane, O.S.B. has been
writing icons at
Mount Angel Abbey since 1985. In 1992 Abbot Peter Eberle, O.S.B, assigned
him full time to this work. Since Br. Claude began this work, he has
written some three hundred icons for use in the monastery and seminary as
well as in response to many commissions from churches, religious houses,
dioceses, and private individuals. 
Each class begins with a prayer addressed first to God, then
to the Blessed Virgin, then to Blessed Fra Angelico (patron of painters),
and then to the saint that will be depicted in the icons the students will
produce. After the prayer, everything thing else is "hands-on."
Theological and theoretical questions of color and symbolism are asked and
answered as the students work. There are no lectures. Br. Claude gives out
an iconographic color palette list and recommends readings. But there are
no tests on these. Everything is geared toward the production of an icon
in the course of the semester.
The
second stage occurred when Br. Claude was in his early thirties. Abbot
Bonaventure Zerr, O.S.B., who was abbot of Mount Angel at that time, was
immersing himself in the beauties of the liturgy of the Oriental rite. He
invited Br. Claude to begin producing icons for a chapel he was arranging,
saying to him, "How would you like to make windows for people to look
through into heaven?" Abbot Bonaventure had captured Br. Claude's
imagination with his theological explanation of icons. The abbot told him,
"These images are not mere decorations for the walls of the chapel, but
provide a kind of visual 'real presence' of the subject depicted, made
accessible to our eyes by the light of Christ's resurrection." From that
time forward, Br. Claude, who had previously practiced many styles of
visual arts, began to devote himself exclusively to iconography.