I want to share with you some masterpieces of Coptic religious art. Abstract images, rhytmic motions, geometrical figures, lokal color spots... They are so beautiful, aren't they?

http://www.pravmir.ru/koptskie-ikony-foto

http://www.copticchurch.net/cgibin/gallery

Very nice, Nataly. Thank you again.

The first set were particularly interesting. Some were strongly suggestive of the Coptic influence and style, while others seemed to show a strong Byzantine influence.

I was particularly intrigued by the multi-panel icon set of events in the li... Mother of God).

The smaller icons are clearly of a traditional Coptic style, while the larger central icon is not. The latter is more consonant with Byzantine depictions but the faces are more 'humanized' than traditional Byzantine iconography. In that respect, it puts one in mind of the 'softer' Byzantine iconography that is seen from some border Slav countries, making me wonder if the grouping was created from different time periods or schools of Coptic iconography.

Many years,

Neil

Irish Melkite, thank you for your respond. What about the traditional Byzantine style, I think it is humanized. I think that the traditional Byzantine art (especially the school of Constantinople) is so humanized as the art of Hellenistic epoch; the roots of this art are in the ancient Greek art. Byzantine art was created by Greeks who always had the model of the humanized art of their great ancestors.
For example:
Fayum portraits
http://gerryco23.wordpress.com/2009/01/31/fayum-mummy-portraits/
Icons from Monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/1160909/post41554154/
Mosaics of St. Sophia in Constantinople
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/b0a7e/
Decorative art of Constantinople school
http://www.adama-art.com/images/stories/skulptura/sculptor/prazdniki-12.jpg
http://www.adama-art.com/images/stories/skulptura/sculptor/arbavil.jpg
and then the high spiritual art of Paleolog Renaissance:
Icon of Christ Pantocrator (from the Church San Giorgio dei Greci)
http://www.ellines-ve.it/chiesa_icone.htm (I couldn’t find a good photo of this beautiful icon in Internet. May be someone has it?)
The Twelve Apostles
http://dic.academic.ru/pictures/wiki/files/83/Synaxis_of_the_Twelve_Apostles_01.jpg

and many other masterpieces of high spiritual and humanistic art of Byzantium.

hope to hearing from you soon!