The Dormition (Assumption in the West) of Mary is usually on the western wall of the church so you see it as you depart. It is the coda to the biblical narrative of the other icons. Certain other icons are nearly always facing each other. Fr. Hopko (of blessed memory) explains a bit more here: https://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/hopko/icons_and_their_placement/
this is a very helpful and timely note Skippy. I am doing a thing for this week's collection on the Italo-Byzantine Last Judgement walls that were often placed on the west wall of the interior. It's quite the departure if this is the case.
Glad it's helpful. I love learning what in modern parlance would be termed the "design language" of churches throughout history. When dealing with converts into Orthodoxy, the iconography takes a long while to understand well enough to put into words, but even first-time visitors have an intuitive understanding that the iconography is intentional and deliberate, and more than mere story telling in pictures - it's actually modeling reality in different ways.
Some other notes about the locations of icons:
The Dormition (Assumption in the West) of Mary is usually on the western wall of the church so you see it as you depart. It is the coda to the biblical narrative of the other icons. Certain other icons are nearly always facing each other. Fr. Hopko (of blessed memory) explains a bit more here: https://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/hopko/icons_and_their_placement/
this is a very helpful and timely note Skippy. I am doing a thing for this week's collection on the Italo-Byzantine Last Judgement walls that were often placed on the west wall of the interior. It's quite the departure if this is the case.
Glad it's helpful. I love learning what in modern parlance would be termed the "design language" of churches throughout history. When dealing with converts into Orthodoxy, the iconography takes a long while to understand well enough to put into words, but even first-time visitors have an intuitive understanding that the iconography is intentional and deliberate, and more than mere story telling in pictures - it's actually modeling reality in different ways.
So glad you are back and giving us great material, as usual!.