Icons In The Early And Middle Byzantine Periods Essay - 736 words

Icons in the Early and Middle Byzantine periods Though an icon could be a board painted with a holy subject designed for respect, it could also be an picture on a mosaic, a glaze, an ivory fretwork, a sculpture, and also a coin. What was vital was that the icon's reproduction of the sacred figure made the image to partake of the essence and holiness of the concrete figure portrayed? By honoring the likeness, the admirer honored the sainted stature through the gateway of the image. The Greco-Roman custom of having created panels of the gods put in homes with candles lit near them may have inspired the improvement of icons creating art. First used in private, icons with Christian subjects step by step entered the church. Probably because of their heathen roots and maybe because they seemed to break the second of the Ten Commandments, which prohibited the making of idols, parts of society unwanted icons, finally leading to the Iconoclastic controversy. ( A movement in the Eastern Empire, led by the emperor, that contradicted the sanctity of religious pictures. During the eighth and early ninth centuries the use of such pictures was forbidden, but icons were returned to worship by 843.) Icons are religious images done on wooden plates in the Byzantine style.


The word Icon springs from the Greek EIKON with the meaning image. It is assumed that Icon painting started in the Byzantine Empire about the 6th century and appeared in Russia in the 10th century when Prince Vladimir of Kiev was christened at Korsun, a Greek colony on the Black Sea. The first Golden Age of Byzantine Art (Early Byzantine Period) had started by 300-400 AD This period was distinguished by the building of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. The earliest Icons that remained from this age were drawn in hot wax, also called encaustic. The Crisis of Iconoclasm (726-843 AD) disrupted the evolution of Byzantine art. This movement opposed honoring of religious pictures and destroyed or whitewashed a lot of Icons.


The function of Icons as illustration theology was finally consolidated and recovered as an integral element of the liturgy. One of the basic arguments for honoring of Icons is an or ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: icon, byzantine, golden age, byzantine art, constantinople

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