Iconoclasm In The Byzantine Era

Karl Marx once said “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce” (8). His words ring true with regards to the two periods of Iconoclasm that happened during the Byzantine era. The exact target of all of these destructive acts may be different (icons, Buddhas, and a Christian Monastery), however, what these events do have in common is one similar outcome: the loss of beautiful historical religious artistry that can never really be replaced. “Iconoclasm” is defined as the action of attacking or assertively rejecting cherished beliefs and institutions of established values and practices through the destruction of religious images or icons, which are considered heretical (9). Icons (“images” in Greek) are small paintings of Christ, the Virgin Mary, the saints, or any combination of these Christian figures (5). During the Byzantine era, idols

In defense of idols, early Iconodules cited the Old Testament where God also instructs how to make three-dimensional representations of the Cherubim for the Ark of Covenant, Later, St John of Damascus argued that images of Christ do not depict the divine, but rather that of a concrete human person, Jesus (3). The first phase of Iconoclasm ended in 787, but Leo V later initiated a second phase in 814, which lasted until 843 (3). As a result of these bans, very few examples of Byzantine art survived from this period, and for more than a century Byzantine artists were basically unemployed (5) and churches were no longer decorated as lavishly as they had once been before. Although Leo III and Leo V may have effectively removed the majority of physical icons from the Byzantine culture, neither was able to effectively destroy the practice of idol worship, which continues today in the Orthodox