When was byzantine iconoclasm

Login via Institution. Prices from excl. VAT :. View PDF Flyer. Contents About. Biographical Note Mike Humphreys, Ph. Everyone interested in Byzantium, Orthodox Christianity, and the Early Middle Ages, and anyone concerned with the history and theology of religious imagery and its use in religious practice. Keywords: icons, iconoclasm, orthodoxy, Byzantium, Christian art history, theology of art, Islam and images.

Save Cite Email this content Share link with colleague or librarian You can email a link to this page to a colleague or librarian:. Your current browser may not support copying via this button. Art History. Medieval History. Church History. Byzantine Studies. Armenia between Byzantium and the Orient.

Sign in to annotate. Delete Cancel Save. Cancel Save. View Expanded. View Table. View Full Size. Corporate Social Responsibility. Mission Statement. Corporate Governance. Stay Updated. Rights and Permissions. Email Newsletter Sign-up Page.

The movement was triggered by changes in Orthodox worship that were themselves generated by the major social and political upheavals of the seventh century for the Byzantine Empire. Byzantine Iconoclasm.

A depiction of the destruction of a religious image under the Byzantine Iconoclasm, by Chludov Psalter, 9th century CE. Traditional explanations for Byzantine Iconoclasm have sometimes focused on the importance of Islamic prohibitions against images influencing Byzantine thought. According to Arnold J. Toynbee, for example, it was the prestige of Islamic military successes in the 7th and 8th centuries that motivated Byzantine Christians to adopt the Islamic position of rejecting and destroying idolatrous images.

The role of women and monks in supporting the veneration of images has also been asserted. Social and class-based arguments have been put forward, such as the assertion that iconoclasm created political and economic divisions in Byzantine society, and that it was generally supported by the eastern, poorer, non-Greek peoples of the empire who had to constantly deal with Arab raids.

On the other hand, the wealthier Greeks of Constantinople, and also the peoples of the Balkan and Italian provinces, strongly opposed iconoclasm.

In recent decades in Greece, iconoclasm has become a favorite topic of progressive and Marxist historians and social scientists, who consider it a form of medieval class struggle and have drawn inspiration from it. Re-evaluation of the written and material evidence relating to the period of Byzantine Iconoclasm by scholars, including John Haldon and Leslie Brubaker, has challenged many of the basic assumptions and factual assertions of the traditional account.

The seventh century had been a period of major crisis for the Byzantine Empire, and believers had begun to lean more heavily on divine support. The use of images of the holy increased in Orthodox worship, and these images increasingly came to be regarded as points of access to the divine. Leo III interpreted his many military failures as a judgment on the empire by God, and decided that they were being judged for their worship of religious images.

New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, See on MetPublications. Byzantium: Faith and Power — Karlin-Hayter, Patricia. New York: Oxford University Press, Pelikan, Jaroslav. Washington, D.

Pentcheva, Bissera V. Weitzmann, Kurt, ed. Visiting The Met? Madonna and Child Berlinghiero. The Fieschi Morgan Staurotheke. Icon with Saint Demetrios. Icon with the Crucifixion. Icon with the Koimesis. Medallion with Christ from an Icon Frame. Panel from a Cover for an Icon of the Virgin.

Cameo with Christ Emmanuel. Icon with Christ Pantepotes and the Chorus of Saints. Portable Icon with the Virgin Eleousa. Icon with Christ Pantokrator.