Icons and IconoclasmReadings:Stokstad, ch. 8.Range:500-1425 CEByzantine
Key Terms/Concepts:Icon, Veneration, proskynesis, acheiropoietai, palladium, Iconoclasm, Pantokrator, Acheiropoietos, Theotokos, Hodegetria, Orans, Blachernitissa, Eleousa, Glykophilsousa, Festal, Iconoclast, Iconophile, Iconodule, Iconostasis.
Key Monuments:Vladimir Virgin, Constantinople, 12th CenturyVirgin and Child with Saints and Angels, St. Catherine at Mt. Sinai, second half of the 6th century.The Crucifixion and Iconoclasts whitewashing an icon of Christ, Khludov Psalter, 850-75.Andrey Rublyov, The Old Testament Trinity (Three Angels Visiting Abraham), 1410-1425.
What is an Icon?
General: Two-dimensional representations
Specific: Pictures of holy persons, events, venerated by the Eastern church.
Virgin Enthroned with Saints and Angels, St. Catherine’s of Mount Sinai, Egypt, 6th Century CE.
Byzantine Empire in the 6th Century
St. Catherine’s of Mount Sinai, Egypt, 5th Century CE.
St. Catherine’s of Mount Sinai, Egypt, 5th Century CE.
St. Catherine’s of Mount Sinai, Egypt, 5th Century CE.
St. Catherine’s of Mount Sinai, Egypt, 5th Century CE.
St. Catherine’s of Mount Sinai, Egypt, 5th Century CE.
St. Catherine’s of Mount Sinai, Egypt, 5th Century CE.
Worship Row
Deesis Row
Festal Row
Prophets Row
Row of Patriarchs
Typical Iconostasis.
Types of Icons
Christ Virgin and Child
Angels
Saints
Festal Narrative
Christ
Christ Pantocrator,St. Catherine’s Monastery, Mt. Sinai, 6th Century CE
Christ as Man of Sorrows, Greece, 12th Century
Acheiropoietos, Russian, 12th Century
Pantokrator
Christ Pantokrator, St. Catherine’s Monastery, Mt. Sinai, 6th Century CE
“The All Powerful”
Man of Sorrows
Christ as Man of Sorrows, Greece, 12th Century
“She who reigns in majesty”
Acheiropoietos, Russian, 12th Century
Theotokos = The Bearer of God
Moscow, 15th Century Constantinople, 14th Century
Orans EleousaKyriotissa Hodegetria
Vladimir Virgin, Constantinople, 12th Century
The Virgin of the Incarnation, Rome, 11th Century
Kyriotissa, Moscow, 15th Century
Kyriotissa
“She who reigns in majesty”
Hodegetria, Constantinople, 14th Century
Hodegetria
“She who shows the way.”
Orans
The Virgin of the Incarnation, Rome, 11th Century
“Virgin of the sign.”
“Praying Virgin”
Or
Blachernitissa
Eleousa
Vladimir Virgin, Constantinople, 12th Century
“Virgin of tenderness.”
Or
Glykophilsousa“Virgin of Sweet
Kisses”
Saints
St. Peter, St. Catherine’s at Mt. Sinai, 6th Century
St. Peter, St. Catherine’s at Mt. Sinai, 6th Century
Angels
Portraits Miracles
Archangel Gabriel, Moscow, 1387-1395
Archangel Michael, Greece, 14th Century
Miracle at Chonae, St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mt. Sinai, 12th Century.
Miracles
Miracle at Chonae, St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mt. Sinai, 12th Century.
Festal
The Annunciation, Russian Icon, 14th Century
The Nativity, St. Catherine’s Mt. Sinai, 7th Century
Orthodox Festal Days Feast days ordered by calendar date Baptism of Jesus by John the Forerunner (January 6) The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (February 2) The Annunciation (March 25) The Raising of Lazarus (Saturday before Palm Sunday) Entry into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday) The Crucifixion (Good Friday) The Resurrection (Easter or Holy Pascha) The Ascension (40 days after Easter) Meso-Pentecost (Jesus, 12 years old, lectures the Jewish
Priests in the Temple) The Descent of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost, 50 days after
Easter) The Transfiguration (August 6) The Dormition of the Holy Virgin * (August 15) The Nativity of the Virgin Mary (September 8) The Exaltation of the Cross (by Arch. Zinon, Courtesy
Orthodox World) * The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple (November
21) The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ (December 25)
The Nativity, St. Catherine’s Mt. Sinai, 7th Century
Narratives
The Ladder of Divine Ascent, from St. Catherine’s at Mount Sinai, 7th Century.
Andrey Rublyov, The Old Testament Trinity (Three Angels Visiting Abraham), 1410-1425.
The Ladder of Divine Ascent, from St. Catherine’s at Mount Sinai, 7th Century.
Andrey Rublyov, The Old Testament Trinity (Three Angels Visiting Abraham), 1410-1425.
*Veneration is the act of honoring Christ and saints through their image.
Processions
*Veneration is the act of honoring Christ and saints through their image.
Kissing
*Veneration is the act of honoring Christ and saints through their image.
Proskynesis
Iconoclasm(Eikon = Image) + (Klao = Break)
Iconoclasts (Breakers of Images):1) Icons are akin to the “graven images” mentioned
in the second commandment: “4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:5 thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.” (Exodus 20: 4-5)
2) Icons are man made, as opposed to relic, and do not deserve to be venerated: “The divine nature is completely uncircumscribable and cannot be depicted or represented by artists in any medium whatsoever.” (Iconoclastic Council, 754)
Iconodules (Lovers of Images):1) Icons are powerful didactic tools: “An image is, after
all, a reminder; it is to the illiterate what a book is to the literate, and what the word is to hearing, the image is to sight.” (John of Damascus)
2) Icons are a valuable proxy by which the faithful could demonstrate their love and honor for the divine: “God created man to his own image” (Genesis 1:27)
3) Icons are a valid way to communicate Christ’s humanity and suffering: “How, indeed, can the Son of God be acknowledged to have been a man like us—he who was deigned to be called our brother—if he cannot be depicted?”
The Crucifixion and Iconoclasts whitewashing an icon of Christ, Khludov Psalter, 850-75.
Simon Magus and Patriarch Nikephoros, Khludov Psalter,850-75.
Theodora Instructing her Daughters in the Veneration of Icons, Madrid Skylitzes, 12th Century.
Icon of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, Constantinople, 1400.
Critical Thinking Questions
1. What is an icon? What role did they play in Byzantine worship?
2. How does the icon interact with the sacred?3. What are the arguments for and against the
use of icons in the church?4. What is Iconoclasm? What were the
circumstances that led to the Iconoclasm?