Icons and Iconoclasm

Readings:
Stokstad, ch. 8.
Range:
500-1425 CE
Byzantine
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 Century
Virgin 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: Twodimensional
representations
Specific: Pictures
of holy persons,
events, venerated
by the Eastern
church.

Virgin Enthroned with Saints and Angels,

St. Catherines of Mount Sinai, Egypt, 6th

Byzantine Empire in the 6th

Century

St. Catherines of Mount Sinai,

th

St. Catherines of Mount Sinai,

Egypt, 5th Century CE.

St. Catherines of Mount Sinai,

Egypt, 5th Century CE.

St. Catherines of Mount Sinai,

Egypt, 5th Century CE.

St. Catherines of Mount Sinai,

Egypt, 5th Century CE.

St. Catherines of Mount Sinai,

Egypt, 5th Century CE.

Row of Patriarchs
Prophets Row
Festal Row
Deesis Row

Worship Row

Typical Iconostasis.

Types of Icons

Christ

Angels

Virgin and Child

Festal

Saints

Narrative

Christ

Christ
Pantocrator,
St. Catherines
Monastery, Mt.
Sinai, 6th

Christ as Man of
Sorrows, Greece, 12th
Century

Acheiropoietos, Russian,
12th Century

Pantokrator
The All
Powerful

Christ Pantokrator, St.

Catherines Monastery,
Mt. Sinai, 6th Century

Man of Sorrows
She who
reigns in
majesty

Christ as Man of
Sorrows, Greece,
12th Century

Acheiropoietos, Russian, 12th Century

Theotokos = The Bearer of

God
Kyriotissa

Moscow, 15th
Century

Hodegetria

Constantinople,
14th Century

Orans

The Virgin of
the
Incarnation,
Rome, 11th
Century

Eleousa

Vladimir Virgin,
Constantinople,
12th Century

Kyriotissa
She who
reigns in
majesty

Kyriotissa,
Moscow, 15th

Hodegetria
She who
shows the
way.
Hodegetria,
Constantinople,
14th Century

Orans
Praying Virgin
Or

Blachernitissa
Virgin of the
sign.
The Virgin of the
Incarnation, Rome,
11th Century

Eleousa
Virgin of
tenderness.
Or

Glykophilsousa
Virgin of
Sweet Kisses
Vladimir Virgin,
Constantinople,
12th Century

Saints

St. Peter, St.

Catherines at Mt.

St. Peter, St.

Catherines at Mt.

Angels
Portraits

Archangel
Michael,
Greece, 14th
Century

Archangel
Gabriel,
Moscow,
1387-1395

Miracles

Miracle at
Chonae, St.
Catherines
Monastery at
Mt. Sinai, 12th
Century.

Miracles

Miracle at
Chonae, St.
Catherines
Monastery at

Festal

The Annunciation, Russian

Icon, 14th Century

The Nativity, St. Catherines

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

The Nativity, St.

Catherines Mt. Sinai, 7th
Century

Narratives

The Ladder of Divine

Ascent, from St.
Catherines at Mount
Sinai, 7th Century.

Andrey Rublyov, The Old

Testament Trinity (Three
Angels Visiting Abraham),
1410-1425.

The Ladder of Divine

Ascent, from St.
Catherines at Mount

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 Christs
humanity and suffering: How, indeed, can the
Son of God be acknowledged to have been
a man like ushe who was deigned to be
called our brotherif 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-

Theodora Instructing her Daughters in the

Veneration of Icons, Madrid Skylitzes, 12th

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?