THE LAST DECADES of the disintegrating Byzantine Empire were, culturally and spiritually speaking, far from being its least glorious. Among the great names of that epoch Bishop Symeon of Thessalonika has a place by reason of his liturgical commentaries. Appointed bishop sometime between 1410 and 1420, he died in September 1429, six months before the Turkish army led by Murad II conquered the city. We are concerned here with his mystagogical commentary on the Sacred Temple and particularly with what he had to say about the screen which separated the sanctuary from the nave:

 

The chancel signifies the distinction between the sensible and the intelligible; it is, as it were, a firm barrier between material and spiritual things. Being in sight of the altar, that is of Christ, its columns are those of the Church itself, signifying those who strengthen us by their witness to Christ. Above the chancel the columns are joined by an unbroken decorated architrave signifying the bond of charity, which is the communion in Christ between earthly saints and heavenly beings. This is why a picture of the Saviour is placed here in the middle of the sacred images. His Mother and the Baptist are on either side of him with angels and archangels, the apostles and the rest of the saints. This signifies Christ in heaven with his saints, Christ as he is with us now and Christ who will come again.

http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/#6841634655905246364

I once read somewhere that in the West the back of the priest's chasuble functioned much like the iconostasis.

You can't hear our Canon and Consecration, we can't see theirs.

Quote from: Sigismund

I once read somewhere that in the West the back of the priest's chasuble functioned much like the iconostasis.

You can't hear our Canon and Consecration, we can't see theirs.

The practice of closing the Iconostasis and drawing a curtain is declining, both among Eastern Catholics and Orthodox, at least in my experience.