The Ladder of Divine Ascent

Crafting a Universal Image

An Image Confined by Pride

A few years ago, I had committed to painting an icon of The Ladder of Divine Ascent for our church, but for various reasons had been unable to fulfill that commitment until very recently.

I was familiar with several models of the icon of the Ladder of Divine Ascent, but I greatly struggled with whether any of those models would be suitable for our little parish. The icon is based on a spiritual text of the same name, written by St John Climacus (which is why he is called “of the Ladder”). This spiritual text was composed in the early 7th century and was primarily written for monastics, though there is a quote in the beginning which simplifies the entirety of the book for non-monastics:

“Do whatever good you may. Speak evil of no one. Rob no one. Tell no lie. Despise no one and carry no hate. Do not separate yourself from the church assemblies. Show compassion to the needy. Do not be a cause of scandal to anyone. Stay away from the bed of another, and be satisfied with what your own wives can provide you. If you do all this, you will not be far from the kingdom of heaven.”

This is not to say that this spiritual work is unsuitable for Christians living in the world. Far from it. It’s highly encouraged for everyone to read passages from the Ladder daily throughout Great Lent, and it’s long been considered a spiritual classic by Orthodox Christian of every background. However, the models of the icon of the Ladder of Divine Ascent exclusively (as far as I have seen, at least) depict monastics climbing the ladder. This is totally fine for use in a monastery, but this doesn’t land the same way in the average parish context.

An icon with an emphasis on St John Climacus’ portrait seemed to be the best solution, but I had to work out how the ladder itself would be incorporated. My earliest draft, which I thought (at the time) would be successful stuck rigidly to the above quote from the Ladder… and that was the beginning of my troubles in drafting a successful image.

Something immediately felt "off” when I began painting. I think a lot of this probably had to do with limiting myself to a specific aspect ratio. I have a fascination with tall and narrow compositions. I’m not totally sure why I love these dimensions so much. They’re quite challenging but can also be quite beautiful when successful. Just take a look at these historic examples using tall and narrow dimensions!

Each example is, more or less, 100x17 inches. Each dated around the 14th century.

My own composition of the Ladder was ultimately trying to squeeze too much information into a single image, causing it to at once feel empty and busy.

I eventually abandoned this composition and began contemplating other possibilities. My pride got the better of me here. I probably could have done something like the original design if I had simply used a more traditional aspect ratio and spaced everything out. But my heart was fixed on finding something unique and powerful.

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