The Icon

(Greek for “image”, “likeness”, “representation”) eikōn (Greek for “image”, “likeness”, “representation”)

Icon of Christ, encaustic on wood, 6th century, St. Catherine’s monastery, Sinai, Egypt

“Pagan” icon of Isis (wing of a triptych), ca. 180–200 CE

Portrait of a woman, from Hawara, Egypt, ca. 50–70 CE

Forms of veneration accorded to icons: bowing and prostration kissing lighting of lamps and candles burning of incense veiling adornment with garlands ceremonial bathing

Ivory icon with the Deposition from the Cross, 10th century

Sardonyx icon of St. George (worn as a pectoral pendant), 11th or 12th century

Wall-painted icon of St. Panteleimon, church of St. Panteleimon at Nerezi, Republic of Macedonia, ca. 1164

Diptych with the Virgin and Child and the Deposition from the Cross, ca. 1400

Byzantine Iconoclasm (720s–843)

ICONOCLASTS vs. ICONOPHILES

Second Commandment (Exodus 20:4-5) You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them.

Main arguments in support of the making and veneration of icons: Christ assumed human form and was seen and therefore could be depicted. Icon veneration is not idolatry: the focus of veneration is not the icon as a material object but the person depicted in the icon.

Khludov Psalter, mid-9th century

They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Psalm 68:22 Khludov Psalter, mid-9th century

Scene of icon veneration in the so-called Hamilton Psalter, ca. 1300

Ceremonial entry of Emperor John I Tzimiskes in Constantinople after his military campaign in Bulgaria in 971, from a manuscript of the Chronicle of John Skylitzes, mid-12th century

Procession with the icon of the Virgin Portaitissa (“of the gate”), Iviron Monastery, Mount Athos, Greece

Icon of Christ, 6th century Icon of Christ, ca. 1260s

Icon of the Virgin of Vladimir, late 11th or early 12th century, with later repainting

Lamentation, wall painting in the church of St. Panteleimon at Nerezi, Republic of Macedonia, ca. 1164

Moscow