icons upload

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?