2 Iconoclasm and the triumph of the icon

During the eighth century, the dispute on whether it was acceptable to depict divine nature escalated into a serious controversy, known as Iconoclasm (from the Greek εικονοκλασμός, eikonoklasmós, lit. ‘breaking images’). The ‘anti-images’ faction obtained the Byzantine emperor’s support, and a ban was imposed on the use of images. The controversy had two phases which lasted between 726–787 and 815–843. Icons emerged triumphant from this hard test. The Byzantine (i.e., Orthodox) Church took every precaution not to be accused of encouraging idolatrous worship when venerating icons.

Early theologians established that the icon serves as a channel of divine grace. This was one of the main arguments that iconophiles (from the Greek εικονόφιλοι, eikonóphiloi, lit. ‘friends of the icons’) used in defence of the icons. Hence, when the Orthodox Christians venerate icons, they venerate the person depicted because, according to Saint Basil (c.329–379), ‘the honour given to the icon passes to the prototype’ (Acheimastou-Potamianou, 1987, p. 37). As Saint Basil lived before Iconoclasm, his phrase was used as a defence of icons first by John of Damascus (c.675–c.749) to highlight that the icon is the ‘visual aid’ to worship, not the object of worship (Evans, 2004, p. 459). It was, therefore, established that it is impossible for the Orthodox believer to confuse an icon representing Christ, the Virgin or any other saint/event narrated in the Bible with an idol – idols were pictures of false gods, while icons depict the one, true God.

Venerating the icon of Christ is particularly crucial because ‘if anyone does not venerate the icon of Christ’, as the Eighth Ecumenical Council (879/880) declared, ‘they will not see His form in the Second Coming’ (James, 2003, p. 67). In other words, icons are proof of identity for the actual sacred person(s) depicted. Standing in front of an icon is equivalent to encountering the saint face-to-face, and/or partaking personally in the event depicted. In fact, the Byzantines maintained that their images were so ‘lifelike’ that there was no difference between standing in front of them, and standing in front of the saintly persons depicted (Maguire, 1996, p. 5-7). In order to achieve this, Byzantine artists heavily relied on reproducing faithfully the specific identifying features of the sacred persons, so there would be no doubt regarding their identity.

An indicative example is provided by the Greeks, who were in Italy for the Council of Ferrara-Florence in 1438/9 to negotiate the union of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. This was an unsuccessful political attempt at rescuing the dying and bankrupt Empire by uniting the Christian Churches hoping for subsequent western aid (Kazhdan, 1991, vol. 2, p. 783). The Greek Orthodox delegation found it difficult to identify with western representational conventions. Patriarch Gregory Melissenos (Patriarch between 1443 and 1459, but left Constantinople in 1450) stated: