![]() ![]() ![]() Some scholars argue that the ideology of an image-free religion came across through a cultural osmoses. The first explanation frames iconoclasm in terms of the Arab influence: as the Islamic faith pushed against the Eastern borders of Byzantium, Leo III was forced to confront their culture. Some explanations, such as that it was an appeasement of God after a deadly volcanic eruption of Santorini, sound somewhat like a plot out of a Greek melodrama. Scholars have argued over the multiple possible reasons leading up to Leo’s smashing of the icons and this break in tradition. So, while the former law asserted the human nature of Christ’s image, the latter began setting up the symbolism that would by and large replace it during the iconoclastic years. At that same council, Canon 73 declared a reverence for the cross by banning its placement on the ground of churches, where human feet would trample it. Thus, symbols favored in the early Roman period (lambs, bread, fish, etc.) suddenly became a heretical misrepresentation of Christ. This change coincided with Canon 82 of the Quinisext Council: “So, in order that the perfect should be represented before the eyes of all people, we ordain that from now on Christ our Lord, the Lamb who took upon Himself the sins of the world, be portrayed in images in His human form” (Cormack 99). During the reign of Justinian II, the very face of Christ was minted on new coinage instead of-as was custom in previous eras-symbolic images. ![]() The events preceding Leo III seem to contradict the ideology of iconoclasm completely. Representations of Christ and his saints, as well as a newfound interest in the Virgin populated Orthodox churches around the newly designated de-facto seat of Christianity, Constantinople. ![]() Before Leo III’s imposition of iconoclasm with the emblematic removal of Christ’s face from the Chalke Gate at his royal palace in 726, religious imagery picked up relatively near where western antiquity had left off. Despite the metaphorical black-bar of iconoclasm in the height of the Byzantine Empire, the period still can offer great insight into the developing identity of Christian art. ![]()
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