The MARRIAGE ICON is a type of contemporary icon. Its canon—the pattern and
principles—was created by the painter Ventzislav Piriankov in the 1990s. His
1995 diploma thesis in painting, titled "Idealization and Light," was
dedicated to the synthesis of the ideal of harmony, the union of woman and man,
and the synthesis of the concept of the Ideal of Love through symbolic
representation on an Icon.
From then until today, the artist has contemplated the motif of joined
faces in most of his paintings, specifically in the series 'The Wedding,'
'Presence,' and 'Marriage Icons.' A Marriage Icon drawn with pen and ink served
as a beautiful wedding symbol for Kasia and Ventzi's wedding invitations in
1997. In 2000, a Piriankov album was published, featuring many such depictions,
alongside numerous paintings from the Marriage Icons series. The Marriage Icon
depicts the joined faces of a woman and a man, usually against the background
of a halo and a cross. Most marriage icons are created in warm red-gold colors,
though they occasionally appear in monochromatic or other color schemes.
In 2003, Zbigniew Nosowski, editor of the 'Więź' magazine, visited Ventzi
in his Poznań studio. At the time, he was writing a wonderful book titled
"Parami do nieba" (In Pairs to Heaven). Enchanted by the message and
beauty of the images, he proposed illustrating the book with Ventzi's
paintings. This came to fruition in 2004 when the book was published with one
of the Marriage Icons on its cover.
As soon as the book appeared that same year, Irena and Jerzy Grzybowski
visited us. They were then establishing the foundations of the MARRIAGE
ENCOUNTERS movement, and the Marriage Icons they discovered through Nosowski's
book felt like a sign from heaven. Following inspired conversations, an icon
dedicated to Marriage Encounters was commissioned, named the ICON OF MARRIAGE
ENCOUNTERS – "ABIDE IN MY LOVE." The icon was blessed by Archbishop
Stanisław Gądecki, Metropolitan of Poznań, in 2005 during the 11th
International Convention of Marriage Encounters Animators in Poznań. Its
purpose is to encourage all married couples to pray and meditate on their own
relationship.
The Marriage Icon symbolizes the unity of the bond between two people,
realized through dialogue, which perfects the human love of the spouses and
strengthens their indissoluble unity. As the author of the pattern, Ventzislav
Piriankov is the sole creator authorized to produce Marriage Icons. The
reproduction and creation of copies of the Icon refer to the tradition of Icons
that are intentionally repainted many times, which involves, among other
things, long-term contemplation and abiding in a single symbol and its message.
Marriage Icons have also appeared in many other Christian publications and
on book covers, such as those from the 'W Drodze' publishing house—for example,
on the cover of Olivier Florant's book "Don't Spoil the Pleasure, It's
Holy! The Liturgy of Sexuality." In 2000, Piriankov also received the main
prize at the Biennale of Sacred Art in Gorzów Wielkopolski.
