Iconoclastic Controversy and Iconophilia

Sin dalla fine del secolo IV, la parte orientale dell’impero romano, in seguito divenuto impero bizantino, era stato afflitto da molteplici eresie, che rischiavano seriamente di minare e di compromettere la sua stessa unità. Le più importanti tra queste eresie, erano il nestorianesimo , il monofisismo  e il paulicianesimo . Quest’ultima eresia, era sorta in Armenia e in Siria nel secolo VII.
Secondo le fonti, il basileus Leone III, incominciò ad appoggiare gli iconoclasti per una serie di motivi: prima di tutto subì le pressioni dei vescovi iconoclasti dell’Asia Minore a favore dell’iconoclasmo; inoltre sembrerebbe che tutta una serie di disastri naturali, ultimo dei quali un devastante maremoto nel mar Egeo, convincesse l’imperatore bizantino, che tali disastri naturali, fossero dovuti all’ira divina contro la venerazione delle icone. Difficile ad ogni modo stabilire quanto di vero ci sia in questi resoconti, e sui reali motivi per cui fu introdotta l’iconoclastia. 
La riforma religiosa del basileus Leone III, andrebbe verosimilmente iscritta in una più ampia opera volta a rafforzare la stabilità e la solidità dell’Impero, ai fini della quale i pauliciani rappresentavano un pericolo. Fu anche per togliere loro il pretesto di una ribellione che probabilmente Leone III, decise di assecondare le loro richieste.

film, which becomes the capstone to a self-referential Tarkovskian oeuvre, Marker combines Tarkovsky's films with footage of the great director on his death bed. The finished product is a sort of Tarkovskian death mask or, as I would prefer to call it, a relic and a vita of Russia's greatest iconophile. As Marker might have put it, the final analysis of Tarkovsky as an artist shows that Rublev was very much present in Tarkovksy, and vice versa.

The anonymous author of the “Life of Michael Synkellos” in his account about the act of confession of the brothers Theodore and Theophanus Graptoi uses a genuine document, a letter of Theodore, where the confessor describes what he and his brother suffered in 836. A new French translation of this letter is included in the article because the previous translation by S. Vailhé (the only translation into an European language) is not complete and sometimes incorrect (in the appendix a Russian translation of the same letter is added). The present author compares two versions of the same event, that of the letter of Theodore and that of the “Life of Michael Synkellos.” The comparison shows that, in the hand of the anonymous hagiographer, the story becomes transformed into a panegyric or even a Passion épique. All the known versions of the iambic verses written about the faces of the confessors are compared. A hypothesis has been put forward that the cause of such an unusual punishment was the satyrical verses written by Theophanus Graptos about Emperor Leo the Armenian. Probably, Theophilus’ idea of giving the brothers to the Arabs was a mockery provoked by the fact that the brothers left Palestine because of a fear of the Arabs. The reasons for Theophilus’ irritation with the brothers were of rather political than religious nature. An episode in the Continuator of Theophanus with a discussion held between St Theophanus and Emperor Theophilus about the Book of Isaiah allegedly “corrupted” by the iconoclast is also reconsidered. It is very probable that it is fictitious (because Theodore Graptos in his letter did not mention it), but, in any case, it may correspond to some “Armenian” version of the Greek text of Isaiah: at least, such a corrupted quotation from Isaiah is to be read in a harsh iconoclastic document, the Testament of the Armenian Catholicos Sahak III, whose spiritual son Smbat Bagratuni was a close friend of the first iconoclast Emperor Leo III.

Με τον όρο «Εικονομαχία» αναφερόμαστε σε μία συγκεκριμένη περίοδο της Βυζαντινής Αυτοκρατορίας, που διήρκησε από το 726 ως το 842, οπόταν η απαγόρευση της απεικόνισης και της απόδοσης λατρείας σε εικόνες Ιερών Προσώπων της Χριστιανικής Θρησκείας αποτελούσε επίσημη πολιτική του Βυζαντίου. Στη σημερινή ανακοίνωση θα προσπαθήσουμε να κάνουμε μία αναφορά στο φιλοσοφικό και πολιτικό υπόβαθρο πριν και κατά τη διάρκεια της Εικονομαχίας, εστιάζοντας τόσο στις γραπτές πηγές, όσο και στα υλικά τεκμήρια.

In one of his earliest monographs, Studien zur beneventanischen Malerei (1968), Hans Belting concentrated on the arts of the Langobardia Minor, among which the painted crypt of the Abbot Epyphanius (824-42) in the monastery of San Vincenzo al Volturno was recognized the most important cycle in the early medieval southern Italy. Belting developed an interpretation of the murals, their style, and contents, by tracing connections within a wide geographical perspective. Although challenged and eventually refuted over the years, still his reading of the crypt is thought-provoking. Identifying in the murals “östliche Elemente”, and Constantinopolitan prototypes, he rejected Rome as their necessary mediator, ruling out any parallelism with murals made in Rome at the time of Paschal I (817-24). Inspired by the questions involved, the present paper concentrates on a specific image in the crypt, the Annunciation displayed to the sides of the fenestella confessionis. This faded mural is one of the earliest extant examples of the depiction of the scene with the two protagonists shown either side of an archway, window or door of an opening, as it will become customary in later art. The appearance of this kind of Annunciation will be understood not through a mechanical comparison with earlier and contemporary theological writings or works of art, but by trying to reconstruct the modalities of circulation of theological concepts between East and West in the period of the Iconoclastic controversy, by identifying the textual imagery derived by these concepts, and analyze its ‘translation’ into visual imagery as a result of influencing the contemporary religious mentality.
Owing to the assumption that the Annunciation coincides with the moment of the Incarnation, Mary becomes at once the limen between Earth and Heaven. But how did Mary come to be represented in the visual arts as the porta coeli? The answer will be sought by taking into account the circulation of theological concepts and liturgical writings conveying a specific Marian textual imagery, and the possibility that this imagery influenced contemporary religious mentality and that it was eventually ‘translated’ into visual imagery between East and West, before and during the period of the Iconoclastic controversy. The literary and visual motifs I will analyse in this study are the spinning of the purple thread, the Incarnation through the conceptio per aurem, Mary’s attitude to Gabriel’s announcement, and the identification of Mary with the porta coeli for the salvation of humankind.
This brief study offered to Hans Belting aims to demonstrate that the artistic production of the monastery of San Vincenzo al Volturno in the first half of the ninth century expressed an awareness of contemporary theological debates and their reflections in religious mentality and in the visual arts. The Annunciation in the crypt at San Vincenzo al Volturno, painted between 824-42, reveals in Mary’s royal attributes, in the spindle and the distaff, in her upright position and bold attitude, in the architectural setting, flanking an important liminal opening, more similarities with eastern rather than with western visual and literary imagery. These iconographic features appear to rely on a theological framing of the Annunciation which took into account recent developments in Byzantine thinking on the theme. The innovative visual developments of the Annunciation in the crypt can be understood within a frame of religious meditation in which mental images played an instrumental role and led to new associations.

Since "Iconoclash" (see the review above), iconoclasm and related terms have been taken as fundamental, general categories for the interpretation of pictures. This essay is part of a project to historicize that interest, which I think goes to a late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century assumption about what pictures are.

[Revised March 2013]

ABSTRACT. The “shining face” theology as luminous metamorphosis of a visionary has experienced three great challenges: the anthropomorphic controversy, iconoclastic debate and the hesychast dispute. This study attempts to make a mystagogical connection between those three theological developments which are standing all together in God’s holy fire with the ‘unveiled face’. I have imposed myself a line of research into the contemplative spirituality field, which in fact represents a hermeneutical trajectory: Glory in the NT (hidden-revealed or being-energies) – Glory in the NT (theosis as Christification) – pre-nicene  Christology (eikonic and apophatic Light / glory) – Desert  Fathers (“shining face” christology) – Efrem the Syrian (clothing metaphore) – Dionysius the Areopagite (veils of theurgic rays and Christ’s Presence as immanent transcendence or as tension between transcendent hiddenness and revelation) – Palamas hesychasm (christology of the uncreated light). I am the first who calls the light from the "Shining Faces" of the Desert Fathers as an uncreated light and a discovery of a Hidden pre-Nicene (apophatic) Christology. I have to emphasize that because these two aspects of my ‘disclosure’ (meaning ‘uncreated’  light and ‘hidden christology’ to the Desert Fathers) were inspired to me by the readings in the field of palamite theology which consider that this light of the ascet’s glowing face to be an uncreated light experienced by the body (aesthetically), an inner presence of Christ who identifies himself with His light (apophatic), He Himself being the deifying light as uncreated divine gift. All studies in the late antiquity ignore this visionary experience, reducing it to the level of a simple metaphor of light (completing the ascetic quest for “real self”), a metaphor in which the saint’s life is hagiographically (mystifying!) described. A second reason for this ‘blindness’ was a restraint coming from the Evagrian theology that draws attention to the danger of seeking visionary experiences, because in that light there is the risk of an illusory or deceitful demonic appearance. Another reason represints the fact that the hesychast controversy and the theology of the uncreated light as divine energy of the Saint Gregory Palamas’ theology (which in Western media has long been discredited as heretical) have played a negative role in accepting the nature of uncreated light into the “shining face” Christology of the Desert Fathers.

Que sait-on du contexte géographique et historique de l’émergence d’un monothéïsme qui s’est imposé et étendu au point de créer des enjeux et d’autres monothéïsmes inspirés de cette réussite ?

L’archéologie, par le biais des sites ouverts aux fouilles, les écritures retrouvées dans le Levant sud et les zones limitrophes telles que la Babylonie et l’Egypte, permettent de faire des parallèles aux textes bibliques.

L’on sait désormais qu’il y a eu plusieurs tentatives de monothéïsmes plus ou moins abouties avec notamment Akhénaton au XIVème siècle av. JC. qui avait tenté de faire une religion d’état au seul culte d’Aton au détriment des autres dieux, les prêtres et prêtresses des autres cultes se retrouvaient alors sans activité, mais surtout, sans ressources, provoquant l’ire du clergé de presque la totalité du panthéon égyptien, excepté bien sûr, celui d’Aton…

Akhénaton est également connu pour être un souverain pacifique qui négligea la guerre contre les Hittites à ses portes et son armée, si bien que les prêtres et prêtresses qui ne vénéraient pas (ou pas seulement )Aton se liguèrent avec l’armée pour renverser le souverain.
Ses effigies furent systématiquement détruites, son nom effacé comme il était de coutume, et ses « disciples » envoyés en exil.

Ces faits historiques dont nous avons désormais des sources, prévalent-ils à la légende de Moïse comme le souligne Sigmund Freud en 1939 ?

L’on sait désormais que les fameux « rouleaux de la Torah » ont été miraculeusement découverts par son grand prêtre Helkias sous son Temple de Jérusalem à une période où il lui était nécessaire d’asseoir son pouvoir et de centraliser son culte à Jérusalem, justement.

Il est par ailleurs décrit comme « le roi le plus sensible sensible à la loi de Moïse qui ait jamais gouverné » et ce n’est pas pour rien… Josias imposa son culte par la guerre et par la terreur.

Dans le cadre du mazdéïsme et du zûrvanisme, religions dont il nous reste si peu à travers le zoroastrisme dont les Parsis cachent le dualisme pudiquement derrière nos religions sémitiques (l’Islam pour l’Iran) encore aujourd’hui, le yézidisme, le yârsanisme, sont aussi issus du mazdéïsme.
Nous avons dans le mazdéïsme un principe tripartite transmis plus tardivement par Zoroastre au XIème siècle av.JC. :
Spenta Manju est le principe de création du monde, de fertilité, d’abondance, sorte d’ »esprit saint » et bienveillant, en découle et se révèle Ahura Mazda, divinité de sagesse et Angra Manju, divinité courroucée associée à la foudre.
Ahura Mazda devient peu à peu divinité unique après Zoroastre et l’Angra Manju devient figure du mal à combattre, un mauvais pendant à retrancher, sacrifier, l’Angra Manju, prototype du « bouc émissaire » des hébreux ?
Spenta Manju est réintroduite en Zûrvan/Khavashîzag, chez les zervanistes comme divinité créatrice suprême, à la fois hors du temps et temporalité ultime.
Elle engendre deux jumeaux :
En premier l’Angra Manju puis Ahura Mazda, elle rejette ensuite le premier car il est « ténébreux et puant »,  ne le reconnaissant pas comme son fils, mais accepte le second qui est « lumineux et parfumé ».
Pourtant, ils étaient nés parfaitement égaux.
Angra Manju le courroucé règnera sur le monde puisqu’il est né en premier et y portera sa haine.
Ahura Mazda, reconnu par la divinité suprême règnera sur les cieux et apportera la lumière.

Peut on y voir un prototype du mythe de Caïn et d’Abel chez les hébreux ?


Il est intéressant d’observer que dans ces trois ébauches de monothéïsmes, à savoir le culte d’Aton comme dieu unique dans l’Egypte d’Akhénaton au XIVème siècle av. JC. , celui du seul Ahura Mazda chez les zoroastriens du XI siècle av. JC. , puis le tardif monothéïsme yahwite que l’on peut situer au VIIème siècle av. JC. , seul ce dernier a perduré comme « prototype » de religion monothéïste dominante à ce jour, étudions donc le contexte d’une religion qui a si bien réussi.

One highly prominent aspect of ISIS’s program of destruction in Syria and Iraq that has come to the media attention recently is their program of cultural heritage destruction that took the form of smashing artifacts in archaeological museums, iconoclastic breaking and bulldozing of archaeological sites, dynamiting of shrines, tombs, and other holy sites of local communities, and burning of libraries and archives. In this paper, I focus on ISIS’s destruction of archaeological heritage. I argue that this destruction can be seen as a form of place-based violence that aims to annihilate the local sense of belonging, and the collective sense of memory among local communities to whom the heritage belongs. Therefore, heritage destruction can be seen as part and parcel of this scorched-earth strategy described above. I also argue that the Islamic State coordinates and choreographs these destructions as mediatic spectacles of violence aimed at objects and sites of heritage, and these spectacles take place as re-enactments or historical performances that are continuously and carefully communicated to us through ISIS’s own image-making and dissemination apparatus that increasingly utilizes the most advanced technologies of visualization and communication. I will also pose questions about the relatively weak responses from the archaeological community around the world that rarely went beyond the stereotypical expression of “dismay” to ISIS’s heritage destruction. At the same time, I will try to answer the why and how of ISIS’s dislike of archaeological heritage in the context of late capitalism.

Il Cabinet d’amateur con asini iconoclasti della Società Economica di Chiavari, eseguito dal pittore anversano Frans Francken II il Giovane (1581-1642) entro il secondo decennio del Seicento, rappresenta per soggetto e autore senz’altro una rarità nell’ambito delle collezioni pubbliche e private italiane. Forse anche per questa sua collocazione “periferica” gli studi internazionali che hanno riguardato sia l’attività pittorica dell’artista sia - soprattutto - la realtà dei cabinet d’amateur e delle gallerie dipinte, non hanno preso in considerazione l’opera.
La ricerca archivistica e lo studio effettuati in occasione della mostra genovese del 2004 L’età di Rubens. Dimore, committenti e collezionisti genovesi hanno permesso di fare luce rispettivamente sulla provenienza dell’opera e sul generale significato iconografico, lasciando però spazio per una serie di ulteriori considerazioni in particolare sui significati e sulle numerose e complesse implicazioni artistiche, storiche, religiose e intertestuali di respiro pienamente europeo sottese al dipinto, soprattutto in considerazione dell’esplicita raffigurazione di iconoclastia, così poco frequente in ambito artistico.

This work was defended as a doctoral thesis at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam in 2009 and subsequently published as The Poor in Liberation Theology: Pathway to God or Ideological Construct (Abingdon: Routledge, 2014).
Keeping The Window Open: The Theological Method of Clodovis Boff and the Problem of the Alterity of the Poor
The question underlining this study is as follows:
What in the methodology of liberation theology, especially as developed and spelt out by Clodovis Boff, enables the poor to remain other and hence iconic?
Therefore, I have sought over the course of this work to examine how liberation theology portrays the unique and irreducible giftedness of the other poor. I have undertaken to ascertain to what extent liberation theology allows this other to be iconic, to be revelatory of Christ, and if it can offer any safeguards against the idolizing of the poor. I have, therefore, asked how the method of liberation theology can allow the poor to remain other and to what extent it prevents the poor from being made into an ideal and ultimately into idols.
The structure of the work is as follows. The first chapter begins with a consideration of how the poor have in fact been treated in liberation theology. It is clear that there have been a wide variety of approaches and emphases. Some socio-anthropological research will then be examined, to see how the poor seem to have responded to liberation theology, both on its own terms and in comparison with what is offered by neo-Pentecostal groups. One sample theological criticism of liberation theology’s concept of the poor will then be discussed. This chapter both presents and questions liberation theology’s use of the category of the poor, noting its strengths and actual or at least potential weaknesses.
The second chapter narrows the focus. It deals first with liberation theology’s retrieval of the notion of idolatry as a language to describe the current global capitalist economy. Thus, idolatry is first viewed in relation to the economy and economics. Alternatives are considered in the form of different utopias which liberation theology has developed. At the same time, the risks and dangers of utopic thinking are also examined. This leads me on to a discussion of ideology, which I link with idolatry. I discuss how liberation theology itself has understood ideology, and some other relevant contributions to the debate concerning ideology. I address the fairly frequent accusations that liberation theology is itself ideological. I conclude the chapter with an examination of one of liberation theology’s responses to the problem of idolatry and ideology, its insistence on the presence and transforming power of the God of Life.
My third chapter interrupts the direct treatment of liberation theology. I begin with a historical excursion. The Iconoclast controversy, culminating in the Second Council of Nicaea, marks the one time the church in council has seriously considered what it is that makes something iconic. Thus I present the issues at stake in the controversy, and the conciliar response. My point here is twofold. I applaud the Council for its recognition of the transcendent possibilities inherent in the material, thus opening the way for the claim that the poor can indeed be iconic. On the other hand, I note that the phrasing of the council’s documents is such that in practice it creates a new form of totality, thus effectively denying the transcendence it seeks to defend by its ideological approach. At this point, I introduce Emmanuel Levinas. To talk about the alterity of the poor necessitates a more general discussion of alterity, which Levinas made a central plank of his philosophy. But in order for there to be room for justice, it is necessary also, Levinas argues, to introduce the figure of the third, the other of my other. This, I point out in a brief return to liberation theology, is a facet of Levinas’ thought that has been largely ignored by Enrique Dussel, one of the major points of encounter between liberation theology and Levinas.
The use of the word ‘totality’ above refers not only to Levinas, but also to one possible way of describing idols. Jean-Luc Marion has developed a carefully thought-out body of work examining the nature of conceptual icons and idols, and I turn to him finally in Chapter Three. He gives me, in the first place, a language to discuss the problem which has been hovering over the previous chapters and is implicit in my title, Keeping the Window Open, concerning icons and idols. Second, in his discussion of the phenomenon of givenness and the figure of l’adonné he offers a further contribution to understanding the role of the liberation theologian in encounter with the other poor.
In the fourth chapter, having established the nature of the problem – how the transcendence (the mystery) of the other is made possible – and some potential responses from elsewhere, I turn to the theological method of Clodovis Boff to see whether this method can protect the poor from becoming idols and allow them to remain icons. This chapter presents a careful reading of Boff’s work over the past thirty years. I finish with a Conclusion that brings Levinas, Marion and Boff together, to suggest a way in which liberation theology can proceed that will help it to avoid the idolising of the poor.
Thus, the poor are allowed to be what liberation theology has always claimed they are, a sacrament of Christ, a privileged place of encounter with the God of the poor, who has heard the cry of his people and come down to set them free.

L a conquesta del regne visigot pels àrabs, que s'esdevingué entre el 711 i el 720, i el posterior establiment del domini carolingi a Septimània i Catalunya, que es produí entre el 750 i el 801, van comportar la migració cap a aquests dos territoris de població hispanogoda eixida de la part d'Hispània ocupada pels musulmans. 1 Sempre s'ha suposat que aquests emigrants no provenien de molt endins de la Península, sinó de terres de l'actual Catalunya i d'Aragó, però la realitat degué ser més complexa. Dos exemples ho il·lustraran.

This is a preview (for copyright reasons) of the review of Iconophilia: Politics, Religion, Preaching, and the Use of Images in Rome, c.680–880, that Jeffrey F. Hamburger (Harvard) published on the January 2022 issue of the Burlington Magazine.

Excerpts:
"This is an ambitious book on an important topic, in which the principal arguments are laid out with laudable clarity – no mean feat given the ever-expanding thicket of scholarship on Byzantine iconoclasm and reactions to the controversy in the medieval West. The author’s aims are twofold: ‘to gather more evidence about the papal and central Italian monastic attitude to the visual and its importance in papal communication strategy between c.680– 880; second, demonstrate that in this process the Virgin Mary gained a greater importance in the religious landscape of Rome and
central Italy".

"As significant as the main thrust of Dell’Acqua’s argument is the systematic
way in which she pursues it by drawing on a compelling array of sources, visual and verbal, to take the reader deep inside contemporary debates. Dell’Acqua speaks of ‘recaptur[ing] the talk’ (p.5) that accompanied certain choices in papal and monastic iconophilia – a ‘talk’ that is not usually recorded in official documents’. In this spirit, Dell’Acqua, as far as textual sources are concerned, extends her analysis from the pronouncements of church councils to a host of ancillary sources such as hymns, homilies and assorted practices of private devotion as well as other forms of historical records. As far as visual sources are concerned, she pays particular attention to propagandistic public programmes, although not to the exclusion
of works associated more exclusively with the sphere of private devotion."

"Dell’Acqua’s research makes a major contribution to the study of the rise of the cult of the Virgin in the medieval West, underscoring the role of images in its formulation and promulgation. The reader is repeatedly reminded of just how formative this period was."

"All in all, Dell’Acqua’s study serves as a reminder and reinforcement of the extent to which the period in question established the foundations for habits of figuration that collectively served as the cornerstone of western religious art – and hence of western art as a whole – for
much of the following millennium."

A poco più di trent'anni dal convegno catanese su « Culto delle immagini e crisi iconoclasta » 1 , che segnò una tappa importante nella storia degli studi italiani sull'iconoclasmo 2 , la riflessione sull'argomento si è arricchita anche di contributi nel campo dei testi agiografici, dell'archeologia e della prosopografia, che concernono, per lo più, i centri della costa orientale della Sicilia (Siracusa, Catania, Taormina), con particolare riguardo per la capitale bizantina della Sicilia (e il suo territorio), i cui legami con Costantinopoli erano talmente stretti, da potere essere considerata come un suo "prolungamento" 3 .

(N.B. these is the first draft, NOT the published version)

L’immagine testuale di Maria assunta in cielo e celebrata con l’inno del Magnificat, concepita in omelie per feste mariane da autori iconofili orientali nella prima metà dell’VIII secolo, fu accolta poco dopo in Occidente dal monaco Ambrogio Autperto († 784). Nei primi decenni del IX secolo fu tradotta in una innovativa immagine visiva nel programma pittorico di un oratorio funerario nel suo stesso monastero. E’ possibile che
la politica iconofila papale abbia favorito ciò? In Oriente immagini comparabili si rintracciano in salteri bizantini miniati risalenti a non prima della seconda metà del IX-primi del X secolo, mentre la prima versione monumentale rimasta è il mosaico sull’arco orientale della Hagia Sophia (1341–91).
Questo contributo proporrà riflessioni sulle modalità di circolazione tra Oriente e Occidente di concetti teologici di attualità nel periodo dell’Iconoclasmo bizantino, e quindi offrirà una chiave di lettura della formazione dell’immagine visiva dell’Assunta come prodotto della controversia sulle immagine sacre.

ΕΙΣΑΓΩΓΗ: ΤΟ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΚΟ ΠΕΡΙΒΑΛΛΟΝ ΤΗΣ ΕΙΚΟΝΟΜΑΧΙΑΣ Τὸ 717 ὁ Λέων ὁ Γ΄ ἀνεβαίνει στὸ θρόνο τῆς Βυζαντινῆς Αὐτοκρατορίας. Ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ ἔμελλε νὰ σφραγιστεῖ ἀπὸ δύο σημαντικὰ γεγονότα.. Ἀπὸ τὴ μία πλευρὰ στὸ ἐξωτερικὸ συνέβηκε ἡ συντριβὴ τῶν Ἀράβων. Ἔτσι, ἐκεῖνοι γιὰ ἀρκετὰ χρόνια σταμάτησαν νὰ ἀποτελοῦν σημαντικὴ ἀπειλὴ γιὰ τὸ Βυζάντιο 1 . Παράλληλα στὸ ἐσωτερικό, ἡ ἔριδα τῆς εἰκονομαχίας ταλανίζει τοὺς Βυζαντινούς. «Εἰκονομαχία» εἶναι τὸ κίνημα ποὺ στράφηκε κατὰ τῆς κατασκευῆς καὶ λατρείας εἰκόνων ποὺ ἀπεικόνιζαν τὸ Θεὸ ἢ τοὺς ἁγίους. Στὸν ἀντίποδα τῆς ὑπῆρχε ἡ εἰκονολατρία. Ἡ διαμάχη αὐτὴ χωρίζεται σὲ δύο περιόδους ἀπὸ τὸ 727 ἢ 730 ἕως τὸ 787καὶ ἀπὸ τὸ 815 ἕως τὸ 843 2 . Ἡ πρώτη φάση ξεκίνησε, ὅταν ὁ Λέων Γ΄ ἐπέβαλε τὴν κατάργηση τῶν εἰκόνων καὶ ἔληξε μὲ τὴ σύγκληση τῆς Ζ΄ Οἰκουμενικῆς Συνόδου, ἡ ὁποία δικαίωσε θεολογικά τους εἰκονόφιλους. Ἡ δεύτερη φάση ξεκίνησε, ὅταν κατὰ τοὺς χρόνους τοῦ Λέοντα Ἐ΄ ἀναζωπυρώθηκε τὸ κίνημα τῆς εἰκονομαχίας μέχρι τὸ 843 ποὺ ἡ αὐτοκράτειρα Θεοδώρα τὸ καταδίκασε τελειωτικὰ καὶ συγχρόνως ἀναστήλωσε τὶς εἰκόνες στὶς Ἐκκλησίες. Ἀδιαμφισβήτητο πάντως γεγονὸς ἦταν ὅτι ἡ εἰκονομαχία δίχασε τὸν λαὸ σὲ δύο ἀντιμαχόμενες παρατάξεις τοὺς εἰκονολάτρες καὶ τοὺς εἰκονομάχους μὲ ὀδυνηρὲς συνέπειες γιὰ τὴν ἐσωτερικὴ εἰρήνη τῆς αὐτοκρατορίας.

Ch. Chotzakoglou, “Iconoclasm (726-787 and 813-843) and Art in Cyprus and its theoretical basis: a critical approach according to the Sources and to the monuments of the island”, in: Κυπριακὴ Ἁγιολογία. Πρακτικὰ Α΄ Διεθνοῦς Συνεδρίου (ed. Th. Giagkou, Rev. Chr. Nasses), Hagia Napa-Paralimni 2015, 527-566 (in Greek).

SUMMARY

The author examines the widespread theory, depending mainly on bibliography of the last 50 years, that Cyprus allegedly was not involved in the Iconoclastic controversy, hence becoming a shelter for Iconophiles and a place, where they could safeguard icons and holy relics. This view was introduced mainly by the Anglo-Saxon side in the 1960s, when Cyprus was fighting for independence against Britain. This relatively new theory was formulated in an effort to construct the notion that Cyprus during the Byzantine period possessed allegedly a status of autonomy or on the occasion of the Peace Treaty between Arabs and Byzantines, a status of “condominium”, which did not permit the Byzantine emperor to impose his religious policy. Thus contemporary sources and facts, which clearly demonstrate the exercise of the byzantine sovereignty, were overlooked; moreover the sharing of Cypriot taxes between Byzantines and Arabs was intentionally presented as sharing of the political power on the island. Even in case of a condominium, the Muslim Arabs would not tolerate iconic representations. Therefore the author examines also the role of the Muslim Arabs during the Iconoclastic controversy in relation to Cyprus and lists the relevant sources, which demonstrate the Muslim hostility on figural art.
The introduction of historic autonomy of the island aimed to reject on academic level the efforts made by Cypriots for Union with Greece and justify the proposed independence of the island (1960) by the British colonialists; on the other hand the theory of “condominium” was serving the construction of a continuous Muslim historic presence on Cyprus, in order to justify the extensive -in comparison to their population- rights preserved for Turkish-Cypriots in the Constitution of 1960.
Referring to Byzantine sources, the author presents all relevant texts and points out that the proposed view on the autonomy of Cyprus appears out of place and was based on misinterpreted and interpolated texts; through the examination of Cypriot artifacts and monuments he reinforces his argument and demonstrates the byzantine sovereignty on the island during the period of Iconoclasm. Chotzakoglou describes the total absence of iconic decorations in churches and artifacts of Cyprus during Iconoclasm and presents churches of that period adorned with aniconic paintings and mosaics, which clearly prove that Cyprus during Iconoclasm obeyed the religious policy of the Byzantine emperor.

Nadat de fysieke strijd in 1918 was beslecht, volgde een intellectuele strijd over de diepere betekenis van de Groote oorlog. De oorlogsromans en essays van Ernst Jünger kunnen worden gezien als een poging om een diepere zin van de oorlog te articuleren. De frontsoldaat uit de eerste wereldoorlog is voor Jünger het voorbeeld van een nieuw mensenras – het type van de arbeider – dat de wereld van de moderne techniek weet te beteugelen. Reis naar het einde van de nacht van Louis-Ferdinand Céline kan daarentegen worden gezien als een roman die wars is van dergelijke verheven idealen. In deze lezing worden de zienswijzen van Jünger en Céline met elkaar geconfronteerd, niet in de laatste plaats om ons hedendaagse begrip van de oorlog – The War on Terror – te destabiliseren.

Between the late-seventh and the mid-ninth centuries, a debate about sacred images – conventionally addressed as ‘Byzantine iconoclasm’ – engaged monks, emperors, and popes in the Mediterranean area and on the European continent. The importance of this debate cannot be overstated; it challenged the relation between image, text, and belief. A series of popes staunchly in favour of sacred images acted consistently during this period in displaying a remarkable iconophilia or ‘love for images’. Their multifaceted reaction involved not only council resolutions and diplomatic exchanges, but also public religious festivals, liturgy, preaching, and visual arts – the mass-media of the time. Embracing these tools, the popes especially promoted themes related to the Incarnation of God – which justified the production and veneration of sacred images – and extolled the role and the figure of the Virgin Mary.

Despite their profound influence over Byzantine and western cultures of later centuries, the political, theological, and artistic interactions between the East and the West during this period have not yet been investigated in studies combining textual and material evidence. By drawing evidence from texts and material culture –　some of which have yet to be discussed against the background of the iconoclastic controversy –　and by considering the role of oral exchange, Iconophilia assesses the impact of the debate on sacred images and of coeval theological controversies in Rome and central Italy.

By looking at intersecting textual, liturgical, and pictorial images which had at their core the Incarnate God and his human mother Mary, the book demonstrates that between c.680–880, by unremittingly maintaining the importance of the visual for nurturing beliefs and mediating personal and communal salvation, the popes ensured that the status of sacred images would remain unchallenged, at least until the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century.

I thank my advisor, Lynn Jones, for her guidance and dedication through this paper's evolution. I extend my appreciation to John Cotsonis and his generosity in providing access to his work. I also thank Brad Hostetler and Christopher Timm at Florida State University and the graduate students at the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman, and Modern Greek studies at the University of Birmingham for their questions and suggestions.

The Madonna from Velké Meziříčí between the Reformation and Restoration
The study deals with the 'second life' of the Madonna of Velké Meziříčí, a gothic sculpture that originated in the second quarter of the 14th century and belongs to a body of work created by the Master of the Michle Madonna. Attention here f ocuses on two periods: the end of the 16th century, when the sculpture was fundamentally altered as a result of iconoclastic actions in the Reformation era, and the middle of the 20th century, when modern restoration work was performed in the Brno workshop of the Kotrba brothers. The study draws on newly discovered restoration documentation from 1951, which revealed that the sculpture had been considerably damaged in the past. When the Madonna of Velké Meziříčí reached the restoration workshop, it only remotely resembled a gothic sculpture, because the figure's torso was concealed beneath a layer of laminated cloth and more recent polychrome applied to the surface, and the face of the Madonna was entirely concealed beneath a more recent paper mask. Some of the modifications can be dated to 1883, when the first recorded repairs to the sculpture were made, and some of the ether changes are from an earlier date. On removing the sculpture's secondary layers, it was discovered that in the past it had been cut crosswise in half and its eyes had been hollowed out and its hair cut off. This is considered to have resulted from modifications made in the baroque period and in the 19th century. However, damage to the sculpture can be linked to the destruction of the furnishings in the parish Church of St Michael in Velké Meziříčí, which has been documented in the sources and which occurred repeatedly around the year 1600. In 1620 there is a record of the return of 'the representation of the Virgin Mary desecrated by heretics' to the parish church. Given the extent and the nature of the damage that was discovered, it is highly likely that the sculpture referred to there was the Velké Meziříčí Madonna. The near flawless appearance that the sculpture has in the present day is essentially a preservationist interpretation, which emerged out of collaboration between restorers Heřman and Karel Kotrba, preservationist Miloš Stehlík, and art historian Albert Kutal.

Studie se zabývá tzv. druhým životem Madony z Velkého Meziříčí, gotické skulptury z druhé čtvrtiny 14. století, řazené do okruhu děl tzv. Mistra michelské madony. Pozornost je upřena na období sklonku 16. století, kdy sochu poznamenaly zásadní změny v souvislosti s reformačními ikonoklastickými událostmi, a poloviny 20. století, kdy proběhlo moderní restaurování v brněnské dílně bratří Kotrbů. Podkladem studie je nově objevená restaurátorská dokumentace z roku 1951, která odhalila, že socha byla v minulosti značně poškozena. Když se Madona z Velkého Meziříčí dostala do restaurátorské dílny, gotickou sochu připomínala jen vzdáleně, protože její trup byl skryt pod vrstvou nakašírovaného plátna a novější polychromie a tvář Madony byla zcela skryta pod mladší papírovou maskou. Část povrchových úprav bylo možné datovat do roku 1883, kdy byla uskutečněna první zaznamenaná oprava sochy, část zásahů byla ještě starší. Po sejmutí druhotných vrstev se ukázalo, že socha byla v minulosti příčně rozříznuta, měla vydloubané oči a zcela seřezané vlasy, což bylo považováno za důsledek úprav v období baroka a v 19. století. Poškození sochy však lze spojit s pramenně doloženým ničením kostelního vybavení farního chrámu sv. Mikuláše ve Velkém Meziříčí, k němuž opakovaně docházelo okolo roku 1600. K roku 1620 byl zaznamenán návrat „vyobrazení Panny Marie znesvěceného od heretiků“ do farního kostela. Vzhledem k odhalenému rozsahu a charakteru poškození je velmi pravděpodobné, že šlo o Velkomeziříčskou Madonu. Její v současnosti takřka dokonalý vzhled gotické skulptury je vlastně památkářskou interpretací, jež vznikla za spolupráce restaurátorů Heřmana a Karla Kotrbů, památkáře Miloše Stehlíka a historika umění Alberta Kutala.

szerk.): Egyház és vallás a koraújkori Magyarországon. Presov: Vydavatelstvo Presovskej Univerzity, 2020. 13-23. Képtisztelet, képhasználat, képtilalom és képrombolás a magyarországi reformációban Csepregi Zoltán 1 Rövidítve idézett forráskiadások és kézikönyvek: BSRefK = Reformierte Bekenntnisschriften. Heiner . 2 LITZ, G. Die reformatorische Bilderfrage in den schwäbischen Reichsstädten. Tübingen : Mohr, 2007, p. 108-132. 3 Az 1528-as nürnbergi Verzaichnus der geenderten misspreuch und ceremonien az alapján különbözteti meg a képeket, hogy a Biblián alapulnak-e (etwas guts anzaigen aus der schrift), vagy nem. A Verzaichnusról: REINERTH, K. Die Gründung der evangelischen Kirchen in Siebenbürgen. Köln-Wien : Böhlau, 1979, p. 93-121.

Iconoclash" was an exhibition in Karlsruhe; the book is the largest compendium of writing on and around iconoclasms, idolatries, etc. Much of the interest that had begun building in the 1990s is consolidated in this book.

In the ten years since this review, there have been more attempts to propose iconoclasm, iconophilia, iconophobia, idolatry, and related terms as fundamental to art discourse -- see the next essay posted here, "Iconoclasm and the Sublime."

[Revised March 2013]

The idea that linear perspective arose only in the West due to the strength of an unusual process of rationalization is denied by the fact that IXth century Islamic scholars had yet a thorough knowledge of the optical and geometrical materials required in perspective. In addition, the process of rationalization was rarely so intense as in that time, because truth uniqueness and scientific communalism were core values of Medieval Islam. The puzzle is not a matter of less or more rationality, but a matter of axiological motives. First, Islamic disregard for perspective is the result of a value-set insofar painters were fearing the hadīths' prohibition, or wished to avoid pretentiousness of their name (muṣawwir). Second, Islamic art did not draw from Qurʿān and hadīth's precepts directly. Third, painters implemented axiological motives, to put iconic practice in accordance with aniconic leanings.

In Medieval Rus the Legend of the icon of Maria Romaia  was a popular reading for the first Sunday of the Great Lent, which is the Triumph of Orthodoxy, the feast of the victory over Byzantine iconoclasm (843). The Slavonic text which is a translation of a Greek legend tells the story of a miracoulus icon of the Virgin, the Maria Romaia. This icon after the outbreak of iconoclasm miraculously sailed - flew to Rome, and after the restoration of the veneration of icons it returned in same miracoulus way to Constantinople. The text is important not only from the point of view of medieval theory of images, but gives valuable information about the Russian reception of Byzantine political theology. The paper examines three main motifs of the Legend, and their reception in the Old Russian literature: 1.) the transition of a sacred object from one place to another,  2.) the motif of  “flying icon” 3.) the references to the first and last Rome, the name of which is held by the icon Maria Romaia itself. A detailed philological examination of the Legend of Maria Romaia and its comparison with three other Medieval Russian texts: with the Legends of the Vladimir and of the Tikhvin icon of Mother of God, and with the Novgorodian Legend of the White Cowl allow us to draw up a new interpretation of the Old Russian political theory of "Moscow - the Third Rome."



Важнейшим древнерусским уставным чтением Торжества Православия, праздника победы над византийским иконоборчеством (843) является переведенное из греческого Сказание об иконе Богоматери Римской. Сказание повествует о копии нерукотворного лиддского образа Богоматери, написание которой заказал константинопольский патриарх-иконопочитатель Герман (†740). Во времена иконоборчества он послал икону в Рим, которая чудесным образом приплыла – пролетала туда, а после восстановления иконопочитания сама возвратилась в Константинополь. Текст важен не только с точки зрения средневекового иконопочитания, но дает и важные информации о древнерусской рецепции византийских историософских представлений. В статье изучается русская литературная судьба три основного мотива Сказания: 1.) переход святыни с одной страны в другую; 2.) мотив летания иконы; 3.) ссылки на первый и последний Рим, имя которого носит и сама икона Римской Богоматери. Текстологические наблюдения над Сказаниями об иконах Владимирской и Тихвинской Божией Матери, а также о новгородском белом клобуке позволяет нам набрасывать одну новую интерпретацию теории «Москва – третий Рим».

Constantine V is one of the most badly treated emperors in the one thousand year history of Byzantine imperial rule. His nickname, Copronimus, means dung-name, this insult was given to him because of his supposed political inabilities and lackluster deeds.
This how he is represented in almost all Byzantine coeval chronicles. His worst crime was introducing iconoclasm, or more accurately, iconomachy, to the Byzantine Empire. He stands accused of persecuting monks who were the defenders of the true faith. According to one of his most ardent enemies, the monk Theophanes, who was one of the three chroniclers during that period, Constantine was a sort of blood sucking demon, and a terrible tyrant. The emperor killed many monks and destroyed an
incredible amount of icons and holy relics, the chronicler alleges.

This paper draws attention to the appropriation of some Aristotelian notions by the recently overlooked iconophile writer Theodore the Studite, who employed these particular notions for the defense of images. An examination of several texts from the ‘Sermones adversus iconoclastas’ and the ‘Epistulae’ reveals Theodore’s originality in the use of Aristotelian notions for the theology of images. Theodore’s originality is seen, for example, in his contradiction of the principle of non-contradiction. This paper explores the Studite’s efforts to enrich Aristotelian notions such as memory through a properly Christian approach to life and, especially, through the continuously present notion of inhabitation.

The subject of the paper is the first wave of the iconoclastic movement in Byzantium (726-787). From the many possible aspects of research that can be applied to this period, here we single out the theological view. The content of the paper manifests two main goals: (1) to oppose the different theological views of Constantine V, the Byzantine Emperor, as the protagonist of iconoclasm, and John of Damascus, as the protagonist of iconophilia, presented during the first iconoclastic wave; (2) to analyze the views of the Holy Scriptures regarding the icon, while considering those views as the most relevant judge in this theological dispute. The conclusion itself will indicate some guidelines regarding the reasoning on the iconoclastic issue, while ignoring the historical resolution on the same issue.

In this article we analyse the inquisitorial Spanish sources for studying the moriscos’ attitude against art and its veneration before their expulsion. We show how they understood the cult of the images and their reaction towards Catholic Church tradition. We also study the moriscos’ iconoclasm as a defence of their identity. Finally, we talk about the validity of this source for the study of these processes of reception of images.

I föreliggande PM kommer jag att studera synen på och diskussionen om kristen konst i väst under perioden för den första ikonoklasmen i öst, det vill säga under 700-talet. Särskild tonvikt kommer att läggas vid responsen på beslutet vid andra konciliet i Nicaea år 787 och de argument som anfördes för det. De viktigaste källorna till det är dels Opus Caroli Regis contra synodum och rapporterna från det lokala konciliet i Frankfurt år 794, som ger en inblick på hur man såg på sakral konst i Frankerriket, och dels officiella skrivelser och brev från påvarna och då särskilt Hadrianus I som var samtida med såväl Nicaea II och Opus Caroli.

Παρουσίαση της βυζαντινής αρχιτεκτονικής και τέχνης εν συνόλω στην Κύπρο με την παράθεση της σχετικῆς βιβλιογραφίας/Presentation of the byzantine architecture and art in Cyprus with the relevant bibliography included in the volume III. of the History of Cyprus. A supplementary volume III.2 of coloured plates is also published.

A sarcophagus inscribed with the name of archbishop John (Hic requiiscet fragelis ei inutelis Iohannis peccator harchiepiscopus), has survived in Split and features carvings by the city’s earliest medieval workshop, the Split Stonecarvers' Workshop. This workshop’s carvings can be dated fairly accurately to the last few decades of the 8th century, and has been associated with Archbishop John, who attended the Council at Nicaea in 787. The remodelling of the interior of Split Cathedral corresponds chronologically with the episcopate of John of Ravenna, the earliest recorded prelate of Split – mentioned in Archdeacon Thomas’ 13th-century chronicle Historia Salonitana – who re-established the archbishopric of Salona in Split during the last decades of the 8th century. Judging from all the evidence, the sarcophagus in question belonged to this archbishop, sent from Rome as an exponent of papal-Carolingian policy at the end of 8th century. This paper will address a less studied feature of John's sarcophagus: its lid, decorated with a cross and bearing an inscription in Greek characters carved around the arms of the cross. The Greek inscription is contemporary to the Latin one (archbishop's epitaph) on the front side of the sarcophagus. The epigraphic formula IC XC NIKA ultimately derives from the military and imperial acclamations developed within the Byzantine court rituals and the solemn ceremonies held at the hippodrome in Constantinople. The Split inscription one of the earliest dated attestations of the formula IC XC NIKA (certainly in the West, but also in general). Furthermore, the inscription of Split is a unique example of bilingual and biscriptural epigraphy in early medieval Dalmatia – the only Latin epigraphic monument in Dalmatia with prosopographical data, containing a Greek text as well. A very similar formula was used since the early 8th century on Byzantine money, in Greek but using the Latin script: Ihsus Xristus nica. It was a kind of a substitute for the old formula Victoria Augustorum. Since the co-rulership of Leo III and Constantine V (in 720) a practice was introduced to mint and issue a silver miliaresion of exactly this type, in order to commemorate the coronation of the junior ruler ; the practice was upheld by every subsequent emperor, with few exceptions, up until 1025. Starting off as ceremonial money, miliaresion gradually became regular currency, and its original function pertaining to the coronation of co-rulers disappeared starting with the rule of emperor Theophilus (829-842). Byzantine money and its iconography were among the most important means of imperial propaganda, throwing further light on the cultural origins and models of the Split inscription. The aniconic formula IC XC NIKA was sometimes attributed to the Iconoclastic tendencies in contemporary Byzantine art, although the recent scholarship has persuasively shown that the formula originated prior to Iconoclasm, continued long after its disappearance, and was widely used by Iconodule emperors, as well. This paper will argue that – rather than in the context of Iconoclasm – the appearance of this comparatively rare and in those times rather unusual Byzantine formula (from the Western standpoint) in late-8th century Spalatum should be seen as a result of activities of the owner of the sarcophagus, archbishop John. This early and isolated example of Christ's monogram in Greek letters on a sarcophagus of a local archbishop probably stems from him attending the Council of Nicaea in 787. At the same time, bilingual and biscriptural character of the inscription is closely correlated to the special church-political and cultural position of the newly established Diocese of Split between West and East.

Durante los procesos de colonización en diversos
territorios de América, la destrucción y el culto de
imágenes sagradas fueron dos políticas estipuladas por
las instituciones de poder para someter comunidades y,
en algunos casos, las personas colonizadas las adoptaron
como mecanismo de resistencia. Sin dejar de lado las
diferencias entre una y otra política, el acto violento en
contra de una imagen y la adoración de esta comparten
una creencia por el poder de la imagen: son dos caras
de una misma moneda. Destrucción y culto busca indagar
esas políticas y mirar cómo están íntimamente ligadas
a procesos de sometimiento propios de una política
imperial y colonial. A partir de diversos casos de estudio
transatlánticos, dibuja un panorama rico en matices que
ponen en evidencia la complejidad de la cultura visual de
los siglos xvi y xvii en los territorios de la Corona española.

The present study offers a general overview of Byzantine visual poetry, based on older studies including works by Paul Speck (1964; 2003), Odysseas Lampsidis (1982), Wolfram Hörandner (1990; 2009) and Ulrich Ernst (1991), focusing on a special poetical form where the text is interwoven with other intexts (e.g. acro-, meso- and telestics).  These poetical forms are called carmina cancellata or carmina quadrata in Latin and Gittergedichte in German.  The Greek term “woven verses” [στίχοι υφαντοί] was introduced by Eustathios of  Thessalonike (c. 1110–1195). But this type is scarcely known in modern studies of visual poetry. One of the main aims of the present study is therefore to emphasize the importance of the Greek term στίχοι υφαντοί as a terminus technicus for the Byzantine examples, as they differ in their metric construction from the Latin ones. The study associates the form with the general metaphor of text as a woven texture.  The paper compares Byzantine and Latin examples as well as Modern Greek visual poetry. In addition, it examines the instrumentalization of the genre as a tool of propaganda, as an imperial and mannerist form, raising questions concerning the mediality and public presentation of Byzantine visual poems.