I tend to think that the idea that icons are "written not painted" is American Orthodoxy trying to make its stuff sound more special, with a tinge of anti-Western Christianity since its post-schism religious art is "merely" painted according to this view. Which is not to say that there aren't theological differences between East and West on what an icon is. Which itself is not to say that Catholics are not iconodules!
Yes, a simple web search will give many different answers to this question as it does to any question. A simple web search on my part yielded the following discussions of the matter:
Which discussions all cohere in explaining that the confusion is caused by a single Russian word, and a single Greek word, being equivalent to the English words for painting and writing. I'm not going to pretend I am an expert, but that seems to me to make far more sense than "something made with paint is not painted because God guided its creation".
"Andrei Rublev painted the icon in honor of St. Sergius of Radonezh, who founded the Trinity Lavra monastery in 1337."
Iconographers and iconodules say icons are written not painted.
I tend to think that the idea that icons are "written not painted" is American Orthodoxy trying to make its stuff sound more special, with a tinge of anti-Western Christianity since its post-schism religious art is "merely" painted according to this view. Which is not to say that there aren't theological differences between East and West on what an icon is. Which itself is not to say that Catholics are not iconodules!
Yes, a simple web search will give many different answers to this question as it does to any question. A simple web search on my part yielded the following discussions of the matter:
https://russianicons.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/is-an-icon-painted-or-written
https://orthodoxartsjournal.org/is-write-wrong-a-discussion-of-iconology-lingo-2/
https://catalog.obitel-minsk.com/blog/2017/02/painted-or-written
Which discussions all cohere in explaining that the confusion is caused by a single Russian word, and a single Greek word, being equivalent to the English words for painting and writing. I'm not going to pretend I am an expert, but that seems to me to make far more sense than "something made with paint is not painted because God guided its creation".