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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 6 th century and appeared in Russia in the 10 th century when Prince Vladimir of Kiev was christened at Korean, 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 Hair 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 oral tradition telling of the idea of Christ on the Mandylion ("The Veil of Veronica"). Legend tells how Christ himself, put his image on the Veil making the first Icon or "prototype" drawn without human hands. The name of this Icon is The Savior Acheiropoietos.
By the early 13 th century, history shows that the Crusaders and the influential merchant princes of Venice controlled Constantinople. Italian art styles started influencing Icon creation by introducing a more humanistic method, and a very attractive mixture of styles was showed in this period. From the 9 th to the 12 th century a second Golden Age of Byzantine art started which is also called a Middle Byzantine period. This is the period when the Orthodox Church became known to Russia and Icons started to be created there.
This work was distinguished by the unusual work of the monk Andrei Rules. By the 14 th and 15 th centuries, Icons in Constantinople again had reached a high level of artistic achievement. This was known as the third Golden Age or Late Byzantine Period. In 1453, Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks, marking the end of the Empire. Byzantine influence continued nevertheless and ultimately in the 16 th century, Crete became the center for Greek Icon painting. The era we now call the Middle Byzantine is believed to start in 843, with the end of the Iconoclastic controversy, and to end in the year 1261, when the Byzantines took back Constantinople from the crusaders, who had attacked the city in 1204.
Monasticism burgeoned in the Middle Byzantine era, guiding the course of theology, the honoring of icons, and the devotion and religious practices of Byzantium. In the cities monasteries administered orphanhood, rest homes, craft schools, poor houses, and hospitals. In the countryside, monasteries served as agricultural communes. Mount Athos in northeastern Greece was the international center of Orthodox monasticism by the eleventh century. The Byzantine Church's unrivalled devotion to icons, or holy images, was nourished by monasticism. Icons were brought out for extraordinary occasions, carried in processions, and even were used to defend cities during the war.
Icons were sung to, prayed to, kissed, bowed to; they were embellished with candles, oil lamps, frankincense, precious-metal covers, honored by public processions.
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Research essay sample on Icons In The Early And Middle Byzantine Periods
