Being one of the most common icons inside the Orthodox Churches, the Good Friday icon is one of the main features inside the iconography of the church.

Its centrality resides in the fact that crucifixion is actually the central point of the life of Jesus, the hardest and the most important suffering He has assumed for the people.

The color tones in the icon are grim, it’s darker than in other icons. The characters placed in the proximity of the cross are mainly dressed in mourning clothes, preparing themselves to really mourn Jesus. In contrast, the colors of the background of Jesus and the colors used to paint the body of Christ have a more evident light inside them, their reddish tint already speak about the sacrifice going on the cross. The earth is slashed by great rifts and it has a bumpy surface in a way it is trying to express its own disapproval with what is going on.  The rifts are inspired by the words of the Bible, speaking about the earthquake felt in the moment Jesus died. On the lower part of the icon we may also see small fractions of a city: it is Jerusalem, also shook up by the great trembling of the earth.

On the other hand, this is the rare case of an icon that presents one or more characters in a very sad situation. The gestures of the apostles on the right and of the women on the left are gestures of despair, of great suffering, of cry and sadness. The women are supporting one another physically, they are wiping their tears of their eyes, they have gestures unlikely to be recognized in icons with a different subject. This is due to the fact that this icon produces a different kind of emotion inside the viewer. In front of this icon, on Good Friday, in all Orthodox Churches there is a special service of mourning for Jesus. The actual community inside the church has before their eyes the example of the mourning and suffering of the Virgin Mary and the closest apostles. But this mourning is done in the traditional way in an icon: nobody has his or her mouth opened, the cry and the suffering is inside, only expressed through eyes and gestures.

The main character of the icon is Christ and, when we speak about the way He’s depicted, theology starts. First, He is the only one painted in the upper part of the icon, in the more optimistic orange of the environment. Second, His gestures and the position of His body is that of a man at peace with what is going one. Or, should we say, with what went on, because the blood coming out of His body tells us Jesus died. In some parts of Romania, this icon is also named “The Good Fountain”, because the blood of Christ is seen as the fountain of youth and eternal life. This interpretation of this icon relates to the words Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman near the Fountain of Jacob.

Jesus is in this icon on top of the world, He overcame the world and passed though it assuming it, but raising above it. No man or woman, no living being and nothing in this world can raise itself above Christ from now on.

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