About First Image Icons




First Image Icons was created to promote the Contemporary Coptic School of iconography.  First Image developed out of a research project undertaken by Monica René, who photographed and catalogued a large collection of icons in the 4th century  church of St Mercurios/Abu Sifain (restored in the 10th C.), Old Cairo, for eventual publication. A few images from this collection were produced as postcards in 1989. They became the nucleus for the original First Image Icons.



The website www.firstimageicons.com was launched in 2000.  It featured replicas of Coptic icons, ancient and contemporary. A new site however followed with no shopping basket but a contact E-mail through which one can commission hand painted icons or ask any questions regarding the study of Coptic iconography. For general enquiry or to commission hand painted icons please contact us: info@firstimageicons.com
























For more details please send email to info@firstimageicons.com

Coptic Civilization; Two Thousand Years of Christianity in Egypt is a publication dedicated to Coptic culture, art and spirituality.  The chapter on Contemporary Coptic Iconography was written by Monica René and represents the first informed discourse on the Neo-Coptic style and its founder, the late Prof. Isaac Fanous. 

Coptic Society, Literature and Religion from Late Antiquity to Modern Times:  Proceedings of the Tenth International  Congress of Coptic Studies, Rome 2012 (Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta)  Peeters 2016.

P.Buzi (editor),  A. Complani (editor), F. Contardi (editor)


See chapter  on Contemporary Coptic Iconography by Monica Rene


It is a consolidated tradition that the Proceedings of the International Congresses of Coptic Studies include both papers organized thematically - according to sections and panels - and a larger group of general reports, provided with a rich bibliography, about new research trends and acquisitions in a particular field of Coptology: art, archaeology, literature, linguistics, monasticism, Gnosticism, magic, etc. The Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress of Coptic Studies, in particular, contain the reports delivered during the Cairo Congress of 2008 (covering the period 2002-2008) and those pronounced during the Rome Congress of 2012 (covering the period 2008-2014), the latter characterized by two new reports: "Shenutean studies" and "Ethiopic studies in relation to Egyptian culture." Moreover, it is worth mentioning that for the first time some papers are organized in panels dedicated to very specific topics, in which current research is particularly alive, such as "Bawit: a monastic community, its structure and texts," "Thebes in Late Antiquity," or "The reconstruction and edition of Coptic Biblical Manuscripts." The outcome is a series of tools for the study of Christian Egypt and essays about Coptic literature, art and archaeology seen on the backdrop of Late Antique and Medieval Egyptian society and religion.

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