Iconoclastic

(adjective)

Pertaining to the belief in, participation in, or sanction of destroying religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually with religious or political motives.

Related Terms

Examples of Iconoclastic in the following topics:

  • Iconoclasm in Byzantium

    • Emperor Leo III, the founder of the Isaurian Dynasty, and the iconoclasts of the Eastern Church banned religious images in about 730 CE, claiming that worshiping them was heresy; this ban continued under his successors.
    • On behalf of the church, the council endorsed an iconoclast position and declared image worship to be blasphemy.
    • After Leo IV too died, Irene called another ecumenical council, the Second Council of Nicaea, in 787 CE that reversed the decrees of the previous iconoclast council and restored image worship, marking the end of the First Iconoclasm restored image worship.

  • Icons and Iconoclasm

    • This simple cross is an example of Iconoclast art from the 8th century.

  • Architecture under the Sultanate of Delhi

    • The early rulers of the Delhi Sultanate are often viewed as iconoclastic pillagers, best known for their indiscriminate destruction of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain temples.

  • The Emperor Irene

    • Leo, though an iconoclast, pursued a policy of moderation towards iconodules, but his policies became much harsher in August 780, when a number of courtiers were punished for venerating icons.
    • The first of these, held in 786 at Constantinople, was frustrated by the opposition of the iconoclast soldiers.

  • Architecture and Mosaics in the Middle Byzantine Empire

    • The goal of the iconoclasts was to restore the church to the strict opposition to images in worship that they believed characterized at the least some parts of the early church.
    • After the death of the last Iconoclast emperor Theophilos, his young son Michael III, with his mother the regent Theodora and Patriarch Methodios, summoned the Synod of Constantinople in 843 to bring peace to the Church.

  • Painting under the Sultanate of Delhi

    • The early rulers of the Delhi Sultanate are often viewed as iconoclastic pillagers, best known for their indiscriminate destruction of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain temples.

  • Painting in the Early Byzantine Empire

    • While this issue would be debated and challenged during the later Iconoclastic period, for a time, images of the saints in icon paintings flourished.

  • The Macedonian Dynasty

    • The iconoclast movement experienced a steep decline: this favoured its soft suppression by the emperors and the reconciliation of the religious strife that had drained the imperial resources in the previous centuries.

  • Antwerp: A Center of the Northern Renaissance

    • The iconoclastic riots ("Beeldenstorm" in Dutch) of 1566 that preceded the Dutch Revolt resulted in the destruction of many works of religious art, after which time the churches and monasteries had to be refurnished and redecorated.

  • Painting of the Mughal Period

    • Originally clearly depicted, the faces were erased by iconoclasts and then repainted in more recent times.