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Icons and Iconoclasm in Byzantium

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    Definition of Icons
    Icons (from the Greek eikones) are sacred images representing saints, Christ, and the Virgin, as well as narrative scenes such as Christ's Crucifixion. While today the term is most closely associated with wooden panel painting, in Byzantium icons could be crafted in all media, including marble, ivory, gemstone, precious metal, enamel, and mosaic.


    Cited Work(s) of Art or Image(s) (1)

    • Mosaic Icon of the Virgin and Child

    Related Timelines (6)

    Related Thematic Essays (26)

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    Form and Function of Icons
    Icons ranged in size from the miniature to the monumental. Some were suspended around the neck as pendants, others (called "triptychs") had panels on each side that could be closed for safe transport. Large panel paintings were mounted on a pole or frame and carried into battle. Alternatively, icons could be of a more permanent character, such as fresco and mosaic images decorating church interiors. In Byzantine theology, icons allowed the viewer direct communication with the sacred figure(s) represented and, through icons, an individual's prayers were addressed directly to the petitioned saint. Miraculous healings and good fortune were among the requests.

    Definition of Iconoclasm
    Iconoclasm literally means "image breaking" and refers to a recurring historical impulse to break or destroy images for religious or political reasons. For example, in ancient Egypt, the carved visages of some pharaohs were obliterated by their successors; during the French Revolution, images of kings were defaced. Within the Byzantine world, Iconoclasm refers to a theological debate involving both the Byzantine church and state. The controversy spanned roughly a century, during the years 726–87 and 815–43. In these decades, imperial legislation barred the production and use of figural images; simultaneously, the cross was promoted as the most acceptable decorative form for Byzantine churches. Archaeological evidence suggests that in certain regions of Byzantium, including Constantinople and Nicaea, existing icons were destroyed or plastered over. Very few early Byzantine icons survived the Iconoclastic period; notable exceptions are woven icons, painted icons preserved at the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai, Egypt, and the miniature icons found on Byzantine coins, including those of Justinian II (r. 685–95; 705–11).

    Iconoclasm: The Source of Debate
    The Iconoclastic debate centered on the appropriate use of icons in religious veneration, and the precise relationship between the sacred personage and his/her image. Fear that the viewer misdirected his/her veneration toward the image rather than to the holy person represented in the image lay at the heart of this controversy. Old Testament prohibitions against worshipping graven images (Exodus 20:4) provided one of the most important precedents for Byzantine Iconoclasm. The immediate causes for this crisis have been hotly contested by scholars. Among the many suggested causes are the rise of Islam and the emperor's desire to usurp religious authority and funds.

    Icons after Iconoclasm
    The Iconoclastic controversy had a profound effect on the production of Byzantine images after their reintroduction in 843. Changes shaped by the Iconoclastic debate included the evolution of distinct portrait types for individual saints; the invention of new subjects, such as Christ's Anastasis (the "Harrowing of Hell") and the Koimesis ("Falling asleep" of the Virgin); and the development of more standardized programs of church wall decoration in mosaic and fresco.

    Sarah Brooks
    Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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    Icon with the Virgin Eleousa, early 14th century
    Byzantine
    4 3/8 x 3 3/8 x 1/2 in. (11.2 x 8.6 x 1.3 cm)
    John C. Weber Collection, New York


    This image of the Virgin of Compassion, or Virgin Eleousa, is a remarkable addition to the limited number of surviving miniature mosaic icons, a medium first popularized in the Late Byzantine era. The intimate gesture of the Christ Child, his head pressed to his mother's cheek, is one of the most beautiful images in Byzantine art. The poses of the heads and the position of the Christ Child's hand (partially restored) are remarkably similar to a less sophisticated, painted icon of the Virgin and Child in the collection of the Monastery of Saint Catherine at Sinai, where the Christ Child also has light brown hair. Another icon from Sinai, which has five small images of named icons, including one labeled the Blachernitissa, echoes the head poses and hand gesture seen in this work. An icon donated to the Church of Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, in the seventeenth century and dated to the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century offers a related pose in its exquisite Virgin with an elaborate halo, although the image of the Christ Child differs, as do elements of the design, including the details of the face.
    This icon has an inscription in Latin identifying it as the icon that inspired the conversion in the fourth century of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. The saint's vita describes the event: "Then the ascetic gave her an icon on which was depicted the All-holy Theotokos holding the Divine Child in her arms, and said to her … take this to your home … pray all night … the maiden … beheld in her vision, the Queen of the angels, just as she was depicted with the Holy child … [the maiden] marveling at this vision … received from [the ascetic] Holy Baptism." The desire to possess the icon by which the saint was converted attests to the popularity of Saint Catherine in the West in the Middle Ages. Though the image of the Virgin and Child displayed here was of a type that became popular in the Middle Byzantine centuries, the Latin inscription indicates that Westerners tended to believe that such Byzantine images of the Virgin and Child were copies of works of a much earlier age, if not originals from the fourth century.
    It cannot be determined if this icon came to the West with a pilgrim from Sinai, where mosaic icons survive today. The Man of Sorrows mosaic icon at Sante Croce in Gerusalemme, Rome, is said to have been brought to Rome from Sinai. The miniature mosaic at Galatina in Italy is housed in a church dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria. There was also a church dedicated to Santa Caterina de' Sacchi in Venice, which was established in 1150 and survived in various forms until 1806. It is tempting to think that this work came from the site where Saint Catherine's relics are venerated.

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