Definition of Iconography
Gr. ΕικονογÏαφία sketch, description:
A pictorial representation, delineation; a drawing of plan.
The description or illustration of any subject by means of drawings or figures; any book or work in which this is done; also, the branch of knowledge which deals with the representation of persons or objects by any application of the arts of design.3
Byzantine Iconography:
In Christianity icon describes the sacred images depicting Christ, saints, and the Virgin Mary, Most Holy Mother of God (Theotokos), as well as narrative Bible scenes. Byzantine Icons refers to the distinct tradition embodied in Orthodox religious images painted during the Byzantine Empire. These are the visual and spiritual treasures of the Eastern Orthodox Church, being an integral part of the faith. Thus, the style was founded upon a very evident and powerful spiritual content.4
Byzantine Iconography Historical Background:
The first recorded instance of an image or an icon, in the Old Testament, is when God made man in His own image 5
St. Luke, the Evangelist, was the first one who painted the Virgin Mary while she was still alive. Thus, St. Luke is considered as being the Patron Saint for iconographers.6
The Republic mentions that Socrates insisted on youth defining their terms in discussing a matter.
>Greek Îικων, Îικον — likeness, image, portrait, semblance, similitude, simile, f. είκ—ειν to be like
1a. An image, figure, or representation; a portrait; a picture.
2. Eastern Church. A representation of some sacred personage in painting, bas-relief, or mosaic, itself regarded as sacred, and honored with a relative worship or adoration.1
Definition of Byzantine
- Adj. a. Belonging to Byzantium or Constantinople; also reminiscent of the manner, style, or spirit of Byzantium politics. Hence, intricate, complicated; inflexible, rigid, unyielding.2
In the early Church, most Christian converts came from pagan cultures, and most were illiterate. Because of these facts, the leaders of the Early Church permitted the use of icons as a visual means to help understand the doctrine of the Church.7
When Christians turned to art to help them promote religion they incorporated elements found in a number of sources: Roman, Hellenic, Syrian and Egyptian. By the time Christianity became the official religion of the Byzantine Empire (AD 313), iconography was developing vigorously and the basic schemes of composition were well established.8
The first Christian images as we know them are found in the catacombs Churches of around the 3rd century, such as Dometilla and San Callisto in Rome.
In its early stages, for more than a century, Christianity was troubled by persecution with the systematic destruction of holy images, known as the period of iconoclasm. In 726, the Emperor Leo III and a group of overzealous puritans or traditionalists, arguing that misrepresented religious images often leaded to heresy, banned all pictorial representations based on Old Testament prohibitions against worshiping graven images.9 Although there are earlier records of the use of icons, no Byzantine wood panel icons earlier than the few of the 6th century at the Greek Orthodox Monastery of St. Catherine at Sinai survived the Iconoclastic Period. 10
The Seventh Ecumenical Council, the Second Council of Niacea in 787 rejected iconoclasm and restored veneration of the icons in church.
“[After 787]… [I]conography developed at an unprecedented speed. By the end of the tenth century, the iconographic style had been firmly established and exported to other Orthodox countries (Bulgaria, Serbia, and a little later, Russia) where they were further developed and elaborated 11
The Byzantine Period:
The extraordinary culture of the Byzantine civilization, the so-called Age of Spirituality, lasting for more than 1,000 years, profoundly influenced the artistic and cultural significance of classical and late antiquity primarily through the arts created for the Orthodox Christian Church.
The art of the time was sumptuous and expensive. Stone and brick mortar might be comparatively cheap, but the marble needed for columns and for the lining of the interior of the building was not cheap. The decoration of even quite a small church involved several million mosaic cubes. A large glass factory was required to supply them. Silk hangings worthy of a sanctuary would have to be produced by the silk works of the Palace. Private looms were not available, and were not allowed, to weave brocade of the first quality. Carpets might come from private factories, such as that owned at Patras in the Peloponnese by the widow Danelis, who presented a carpet woven at her works to the Emperor for use in Saint Sophia.
Even smaller works of art, the carved ivory panels, the enamel plaques and reliquaries, the metal bowls and chalices, were produced by the Palace factories. Private manufacturers could not afford the raw material.12
The Byzantine Period begins in AD 1261 when the capital Constantinople was restored to the imperial rule, and concluded in AD 1557, when the Roman Empire fell to the Ottoman Turks.
Masterpieces created during The Second Golden Age of art (AD 843-1261) includes sacred icons painted on gold background, miniature mosaics made in glass, precious metals and gemstones; luxuriously embroidered silk textiles, richly gilded metal work, frescoes, and elaborately decorated manuscripts.
Two of the oldest Byzantine icons discovered at St. Catherine Monastery were painted in encaustic, an early technique involving beeswax and dates back to the 6th century.13
For a short, but concise, textbook of Byzantine Iconography Style see Byzantine Iconography, by Milagros Blanco, 2007, pp 8-32.
It was important for me to carefully define icon, Byzantine and Byzantine Iconography in order to intelligently discuss them.
It is also important for students to gain an appreciation for the subject and the historical development of Byzantine Iconography.
Do you feel that this an important art form that is easily understood by thoughtful adults of the twenty-first century? The statement by the Orthodox theologian, Elizabeth Theokritoff may be siginificant.
While it is often pointed out that most matter used sacramentally has been worked by humans, this is most strikingly true of the icon. It thus becomes a vitally important paradigm for human use of the world for it testifies that man can create forms that help God to be present in this world, forms that do not shut him out.14,15
What comes out of the souls of our children in the form of art can be a legitimate expression of the spiritual. Are not Orthodox children the future of Orthodox Christianity? Is not the child a temple of the Holy Spirit? Then, we need to foster the arts in our children.
Byzantine iconography is a developed technique, and contains historical, cultural and religious heritage; but we cannot limit the meaning of the icon to Byzantine heritage. We cannot remain a beautiful museum. Orthodox Christianity is a living heritage.
The future is with our children and our young people. We cannot treat them solely as depositories for the past. They need an appreciation of the beautiful Orthodox heritage of the past, yes; but not to the exclusion of the creative new.
The future is with our children and our young people. We cannot treat them solely as depositories for the past. They need an appreciation of the beautiful Orthodox heritage of the past, yes; but not to the exclusion of the creative new.
The classical revival pervaded all the arts. It was not always beneficial. In literature it had the effect of stunting the development of a living literary language. Men of letters sought to reproduce the style and even the vocabulary and syntax of the writers of Classical Greece, but with flowery profusion derived from orators rather than from writers. The result was an artificiality which few authors were gifted enough to overcome. The level of learning certainly was raised, but, as with literature, admiration for the past ended to inhibit original speculation. 16
Religion and art reached their most complete integration in this period between the ninth and later eleventh centuries. There was a danger that the integration might lead to sterility. Religion, after all, deals with eternal and unchanging truths. Ought therefore to change? Fortunately the Byzantine artists continued to make experiments, both in technical devices, and in composition.
The desire for experiment was, however, restricted by the intense conviction that the Empire represented an eternal pattern.17,18
It was 1000 years or more of Orthodox community and culture that fostered Byzantine art. Where is that Orthodox community, now? Those early Greeks knew what community was because they lived it! Why can't that be now? We can make it that way, if we have the physical and spiritual resources to do it; but in order to do so, we must take into account a modern idea of urban infrastructure.
Using the human organism as a model, what do we learn?
It is 3-dimensional
It is highly organized in a minimum of space
It makes a maximum and efficient use of energy
It is the author's contention that it was 1000 years or more of Orthodox community and culture that fostered Byzantine art. Where is that Orthodox community, now? Those early Greeks knew what community was because they lived it! Why can’t that be now? We can make it that way, if we have the physical and spiritual resources to do it; but in order to do so, we must take into account a modern idea of urban infrastructure.
Using the human organism as a model, what do we learn?
It is 3-dimensional
It is highly organized in a minimum of space
It makes a maximum and efficient use of energy
It requires an energy input from the environment
It has a large number of elements making up the whole cells for the human body, individual human beings for society
It requires an energy input from the environment
It has a skin or boundary.
St. John the Baptist had his head cut off. Did he live, anymore, in this world? There is a definite connection between consciousness and the organization of our nervous system and brain. Destroy the critical structure of that system and consciousness can no longer remain in the body.
Can we look at it the other way around? As human beings, can we build structures that foster consciousness awareness? If so, this would be an important aspect of community.
The urban infrastructure, then, would be an icon, a vitally important paradigm for the human use of the world and a form that helps God to be present in this world, a form that does not shut him out.19
Citations
The Icon: An Introduction with a Contribution by the West?"Bibliography and Notes
1 The Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, Vol II, p608, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1991 Reprint.
2 Ibid., p739
3 Ibid., Volume VII, p608.
4 Blanco, Milagros (2007). Byzantine Iconography, p 1.
5 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created he them. Genesis 1:26, 27)
6 Ibid., p4.
7 Ibid., p5.
8 Ibid., p5.
9 Exodus 20:4.
10 Ibid. p6 Hall, James (1983). A History of the Ideas and Images in Italian Art, John Murrav, London, p111).
11 Ibid. p6
12 Runciman, Steven (1975). Byzantine Style and Civilization, Penguin Books, p108, 112.13 Ibid. p7
14 Theocritoff, Elizabeth (2003). Embodied Word and New Creation: Some Modern Orthodox Insights Concerning the Material World, ABBBA: The Tradition of Orthodoxy in the West, A Festshrift for Bishop Kallistos Ware, St. Vldimirâ?Ts Seminary Press, Crestwood, New York 10707, p229.
15 Basil of Sergievo, Bishop (1996). Light of Christ, St. Stephenâ Ts Press, p52.
16 Runciman, Steven (1975). Byzantine Style and Civilization, Penguin Books, p94.
17 Ibid. p120.
18 See the definition of the word oreligio in Wes Howard-Brook books, Revealing Empire and Come Out My People and see how empire uses religion.
19 For the structure of an arcology see the work of the Arizona architect, Paolo Soleri (www.arcosanti.org).