Dome with a View

[nick cobb]

> http://www.denverpost.com:80/news/news2591.htm
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> [The Denver Post Online] Artist nearing completion of dome with a

view

By Peter G. Chronis
Denver Post Staff Writer

April 2 - Officials of Assumption Greek
Orthodox Cathedral held the Byzantine
equivalent of a "topping out'' Wednesday
by
inviting Denver media to view the nearly
completed iconography inside the large
golden dome on East Alameda Avenue.

Church officials, who dubbed the $1
million-plus project "Windows of Heaven,''

hope the completed dome with its
Bzyantine-style paintings will make the
cathedral the "Sistine Chapel of the
Americas.'' The domed interior is the
largest Byzantine-style iconography
project
done in the Western Hemisphere, church
officials said.

Parish Council President Ted Critikos
said
there are more than 80 icons. Chief of
fund-raising for the project is Connie
Maniatis. Greek-born iconographer Leonidas

Diamantopoulos, with offices and studios
in
Chicago and Greece, gave a sigh of relief
atop the steel scaffolding erected to
allow
the application of the icons, or holy
images, that he has been working on for
more than 14 months.

"I'm so tired,'' Diamantopoulos said as
he
paused briefly. "I've been working here
(on
the scaffolding) one month. Sometimes I
cannot breathe - Denver is a little bit
high in altitude.''

"The most important time for me is when I

sit down and enjoy (the paintings),'' he
said. The artist said he has been painting

icons for 23 years and has done "24 or 25
(Orthodox) churches'' in North, South and
Central America. He has lived in the
United
States about 20 years.

Diamantopoulos said he had been studying
law in Salonika, then began painting icons

and switched to art school instead.

Diamantopoulos, 48, and assistant
Dragomir
Djekic were putting finishing touches on
the huge Christ Pantokrator (Almighty)
image at the center of the dome. The image

of Christ is 24 feet in diameter and 68
feet above the church floor,
Diamantopoulos
said.

He said the Pantokrator icon also will
have a gold leaf halo and be encircled by
a
Greek inscription saying, "I am, and there

is no other god beside me. The one who is
and who was and who is to come, the
almighty one and behold I am coming
quickly.''

Just below are richly colored icons of
Old
Testament patriarchs and prophets Abraham,

Moses, Aaron, King David, King Solomon,
Elijah, Isaiah, Daniel, and early church
fathers such as Sts. John Chrysostom,
Basil
and Gregory.

Some icons depict such events as the
Ascension of Christ, the Pentecost and the

Assumption of the Virgin Mary.

Although the icons resemble classical
frescoes, they are rendered in tempera
paint on canvas glued to the plaster. The
blue background is an acrylic paint.

After the canvas is glued down,
Diamantopoulos and his assistants make
finishing touches on the icons - he and
Djekic were working on the folds of
Christ's blue robe.

"Fresco is a very old traditional
technique,'' Diamantopoulos said,

"but it's very difficult here for these
kinds of materials that we have and for
the
weather. And it's very expensive, also.
That's why most of the churches prefer to
have their iconography on canvas.''

Also, he said, if the wall behind the
canvas crumbles, the canvas can be unglued

and the wall repaired. Traditional fresco
cannot.

The artist estimated he'll finish the
painting in a week to 10 days.

"It's going to be awesome,'' he said.
"This is a huge dome. . . . It's like a
soccer field,'' he said. "In effect, the
whole church is a dome. So, imagine, now,
to stand downstairs without the
scaffolding, with this beautiful
iconography (above) you, and as you turn
around and watch the holy figures and the
holy pictures, you're going to feel like
you're in heaven.''

The Rev. Costas Pavlakos, dean of the
cathedral, lamented that the church won't
be ready to reopen in time for Greek
Orthodox Easter on April 19. Pavlakos
arrived in July, after the church was
closed, and is eager to celebrate the
liturgy in the cathedral. Services have
been held in the adjacent community
center,
where Holy Week and Easter services will
be.

Pavlakos said several parishioners who
have seen the iconography "were really
moved to tears.''

"When the church is quiet, there's a
sense
of peace and stillness, and when you
surround yourself with these holy images,
there's a real sense of awareness of the
presence of God,'' Pavlakos said.
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