History of Icons

CONDENSED HISTORY:

Byzantine iconography was the art of the Christian empire of the Hellenistic east whose life span extended from 330A.D.-1453A.D.  The empire was one of the longest to survive in history.

It began in the catacombs in the second and third centuries.  It flourished during the reign of emperor Justinian (527A.D.-567A.D).

Under Justinian the Great, Byzantine art continued to flourish through the empire until the outbreak of iconoclasm in 726A.D.

Emperor Leo III the Isaurian condemned iconography, iconographers, and people who venerated icons.  He considered iconography a form of idolatry.

In 843A.D. with the help of Saint John Damaskinos and Empress Theodora, iconoclasm was defeated.  From 843A.D. iconography had once again flourished until 1453 when the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople and the rest of the Balkans.

During the second period of the development of iconography, the main archetypes became more definitive and the pattern of church decoration became well established.

During the Turkish rule, iconography remained very much alive.  Numerous wall mosaics and panel icons were created by some of the greatest masters of the middle ages.  Panselinos, Theophanis, and Rubliv were amongst these masters.  The masterpieces can be currently viewed in various areas of Constantinople as well as in Greece.  Mount Athos, Kriti, Kastoria and Meteora are some of the locations.  By the year 1821, during the war of independence from Turkish rule, iconography had been abandoned by the Greeks.  Russians had also abandoned it in the eighteenth century, due the reign of Peter the Great.

Iconography took a turn and was re introduced in the 1930s by the great iconographer, Mr. Photios Kontoglou (Psalti, Poet).  Byzantine art, which was grossly misinterpreted and despised  by Western Europe and even some Orthodox countries at that time, has now come to be greatly admired throughout the world.

Iconography is in great spiritual demand by the Orthodox and Non-Orthodox.  They even decorate their churches with panel icons and murals modeled after Byzantine prototypes.