Iconoclasme

The iconoclasme (of the gr. εικών eikon " icône" and κλαστειν klastein " casser") is strictly speaking the destruction of representations, whether it is due to religious or profane considerations. The religious iconoclasme rejects the worship dedicated to the representations of divine, in the icons in particular. The Christian iconoclast is based on the second of the Ten Commands: You will not make a cut image . (Exodus 20:4)

Origin

The theological question of the representation of divine crosses the three Monothéisme S. All three allot the characteristic of Transcendance to the divinity who locates it beyond humanity such as one represents it. In the Judaism as in the Christianity which results from this, prohibition to represent a divine figure enracine in the Bible:

Tu will not be made a cut image, nor unspecified representation of the things which are in top in the skies, which are in bottoms on the ground, and which are in water lower than the ground. You will not prosterneras yourself in front of them, and you will not serve them; because me, the Eternal, your God, I am jealous God, who punishes the iniquity of the fathers on the children until the third and the fourth generation of those which hate me, and which make mercy up to thousand generations with those which like me and which keep my commandements.
Exode 20:4 - 6

Petits children, you keep idoles.
1 Jean 5:21

However, rather quickly Christianity produces images. It does not call them " idoles" but " icônes". As of before the crisis iconoclast, the Church formulates opinions on the statute of the images. The Théologie of the icon has the aim of bringing explanations to all these paradoxes.

The iconoclasme exists since antiquity. In Pharaonic Egypt, it was not rare to see the statues of the divinized Pharaons, destroyed by their successor (e.g.: destruction of statues of Hatchepsout by its successor Thoutmôsis III).

Today, in the common language, one calls “iconoclasts” those which go against the commonly received ideas, or which refuse the tradition, in particular when their engagement the growth to destroy or profane “idols”, with the clean direction or the illustrated direction.

Christianity

The iconoclasme or Quarrels of the Images is a hostile movement with the worship of the icon S, the holy images, adored in the Roman Empire of the East.

It appeared with 8th and 9th centuries by massive destruction of Iconostase S and the persecution of their admirers, the iconophiles or iconodules .

It also characterizes the Réforme Protesting E.

The Byzantine iconoclasme

The first iconoclasme (730-787)

In 730, the emperor Leon III Isaurien (emperor of 717 with 741) prohibited the use of icon S of the Christ, Virgin Mary and saints, and orders their destruction. The Controverse iconoclast is born from the refusal of many Christians, living or not in the Roman Empire of the East, to destroy their iconostases. Saint Jean Damascène was one of the leaders of this resistance. The position of the emperor however was reinforced by his military successes: head office of Constantinople in 717 - 718, end of the payment of the tribute to the Arab . His/her son Constantin V (emperor of 741 with 775) also had military successes, which reinforced its position against the iconodules.

The second council of Nicée in 787 authorized the worship of the images again, while prohibiting their trade severely. The doctrinal reason holds in this: if Christ incarnated herself, it is thus possible to represent the Son of God physically, and to paint the saints.

The base of the iconodulie is also in the Bible but, more particularly, in the Gospel. Indeed, Jesus in his last meal of the Maundy Thursday, had to answer the question of the apostle Philippe: “Lord, shows us the Father; that is enough for us. ” Jesus answered him: “So for a long time I am with you, and you do not know me, Philippe! That which saw me saw the Father. How can you say: “Does we Show the Father”? You thus do not believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me! ” ( cf Jn 14,8-10)

So it is possible to represent God in the person of his Son incarnated as a Jesus-Chist. The icons of Marie, mother of God ( Theotokos ) in his Son Jesus-Christ are also very popular. The Icônes are also supports of veneration of the saints, considered, by their lives, their examples and their capacity of intercession, like the reflections of the glory of Christ.

The iconodules are distinguished thus from the idolâtres: they not venerate material divinities and without clean life (the Idoles) but of the Icônes, reflections of true people having lived in the intimacy with God.

Origins of the Byzantine iconoclasme

The iconoclasme is a phenomenon which remains difficult to encircle because the iconoclasts sources have almost all disappeared. From where the difficulty in precisely knowing the origins, the causes and the stakes of the iconoclasme. However, by interpreting the sources, the question can be enlightened. The iconodules show the iconoclasts to think like the Arabs.

It is indeed possible that Leon III was influenced by the proximity of the Muslim world, for which the idea even of a visual representation of God is odious. Indeed, the family of Leon was doubtless originating in Anatolia Eastern, and after having saved Constantinople of the attempts at Moslem invasion, it will pass its life to fight them. Moreover, in July 721, right before the beginning of the iconoclasme, the caliph Yazid II (687-724) had promulgated a Décret against the images, applicable to the Christians who lived under his authority. But the inspiration of the Byzantine and Arab iconoclasmes are extremely different. The Arab proscribe any representation of the life, including trees and animals. Contrary, the Byzantines replace the scenes of the Incarnation by trees, birds and animals.

The iconodules also showed the Jews to have inspired Arabic and Yazid II, and, consequently, to have been one of the major engines of the iconoclasme. If it is true that the Jews regard the iconodules as idolâtres, it is true also that Leon III persecutes them. The Jewish criticism of the Christian images could play at beginning, but it does not seem that it can constitute an explanation of the iconoclasme: the sources which support this theory are tendentious, late, and do not resist criticism.

All thus seems to indicate that the external influences were minor in the appearance of the iconoclasme. It is thus especially within the Empire, in the orthodoxe Christianisme , that the origins of the Byzantine iconoclasme are. Indeed, the problems arising from the iconoclasme are mainly christologic.

Second iconoclasme (813 - 843)

Leon V (emperor of 813 with 820) caused a second iconoclasme as of his arrival on the throne, more rigorous than the first. Its policy was continued by Michel II and Theophilus. The widow of this last, Théodora, regent of her minor son Michel III proclaimed the restoration of the iconolatrie in 843.

The emperors tried to impose a single symbol on the worship, the Chrisme, which was personal for them. The religion of single God, Christ, substituent with the worship of the saints. One can thus interpret the iconoclasme like an attempt to join together behind the banner of the emperor the whole of the Christians of the East, in order to face an external serious attack. When the external threat ceases, the iconoclasme cease also.

Charlemagne had taken party against the iconoclasme, following the council of Frankfurt.

The protesting iconoclasme

Several Protestant religious leaders (Jean Calvin) encouraged the destruction of the religious images whose worship was regarded as a pagan heresy. The objects concerned are the portraits of saints and holy, the statues, but also the relics and the retables. The first destruction iconoclasts appears in Germanic space with Zurich (1523), Copenhagen (1530), Geneva (1535), and Augsburg (1537). France is not saved but the destruction remains in second half of XVIe century of the isolated cases. The great crisis iconoclast Frenchwoman takes place at the time of the first war of religion in 1562. In the cities taken by the Protestants, the religious buildings were systematically ransacked. Violence was such as whole churches were destroyed. Prestigious monuments like Holy Martin de Tours or the Cathédrale Holy-Cross of Orleans are seriously damaged and destroyed. The Abbey of Jumièges, the Saint-Pierre Cathedral of Angouleme, the Basilique Holy-Marie-Madeleine de Vézelay are plundered and put at bag. In 1566, it is the Flanders and the Netherlands in general which undergo an serious attack iconoclast. The popular movement of inspiration starts with Steenvoorde and is spread in the neighborhoods. The terrible crisis of 1566 what is called marks the beginning of the Révolte of the gueux.

Islam

With regard to the Islam, the prohibition of representation is opposed to the Idolâtrie, in particular with the worship of the Bétyle S or stones raised attested by the Archéologie in the Désert S traversed by the tribe S wandering S and éleveuses. The prohibition of representation extends to the person of the Prophète. After which, interpretations were varied.

One knows episodes iconoclasts in the past, directed for example against the Christian images under the Omeyyades. In modern times, the movement Taliban in Afghanistan was at the origin of the destruction of figurative objets d'art (statues of the times prédatant Islam in this country preserved in a museum of Kabul, giant statues of Bouddha in Bamiyan…)

French revolution

By extension, one can qualify iconoclasme the popular movements of destruction of religious works of art during the French revolution, in 1793, that the Abbé Gregoire denounces under the term of Vandalisme.

See too

Aniconisme
icon
Period iconoclast of the Byzantine history
Idol
Representation illustrated in arts of Islam

References

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