Iconoclasm and Depictions of God
You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water below. You shall not bow down to them or serve them....
-GOD'S SECOND COMMANDMENT TO MOSES (EXODUS 20:4-5)
In 726, this biblical commandment inspired the Patriarch of Constantinople to outlaw the creation and veneration of icons. A turbulent period followed in which icons, forcibly taken from homes and churches, were destroyed. In 787, Empress Irene (752-803) summoned the Seventh Ecumenical Council in hopes of ending the violent disputes between those who condemned icons, called iconoclasts, and those who revered them.
The council determined that icons are not idols, but serve as symbols that help focus praise on the sacred: "For the more they are contemplated, the more they inspire fervent memory of their prototypes... and whoever adores the image adores in it the reality of what is there represented."
Icons that depict God have remained problematic. Since God the Father never appears in physical form, any representation of him would be inaccurate and potentially idolatrous. As found here, however, iconographers came up with many solutions. Some icons represent the almighty nature of God the Father through the figure of Jesus- what is known as the Christ Pantocrator. Other icons depict Jesus as an old man, using his age to symbolize God's eternal existence. Still other icons ignore the issue entirely, depicting God within the Holy Trinity or resting on a bed after creating the world.
Christ of the Stern Eye
c. 1700
Russia
Egg tempera on wood with gilt metal basma, stones
R2014.3.2
Christ Pantocrator
ca , 1700
Russia
Egg tempera on wood
Christ Pantocrator
ca. 1780
Russia
Egg tempera on wood
Christ Pantocrator
Mosaic
1315-21
Composed of thousands of small tiles, this mosaic of Christ Pantocrator appears on an interior dome in the Church of the Holy Savior, also known as Chora Church, in modern-day Istanbul. Built as part of a monastery in the early 400s, the church grew through a series of expansions and restorations before the mosaics were added in the early 1300s. The church was converted to a mosque around 1500, about 50 years after Constantinople fell to the Ottomans, and the mosaics were covered in plaster. Conservators removed the plaster in 1948, restoring the elaborate mosaics.
Photography by Angel Javier Sanchez Pimentel
Christ Pantokrator
c. 1650, Russia
Egg Tempera on Wood, Silver Oklad with Gemstones
R2002.14
Old Testament Trinity
ca. 1620
Russia
Egg tempera on wood
This icon depicts the Old Testament story in which Abraham was visited by three angels (sometimes translated as strangers). who he recognized as God. Abraham had a feast prepared for his guests, who told him he would "father nations" by conceiving a son-a remarkable statement since he and his wife, Sarah, were elderly and childless. By appearing as three figures, the angels also have been interpreted as a representation of the Christian doctrine known as the Holy Trinity-the unity of the three divine persons of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Paternitas
Mid-18th Century
Russia
Egg tempera on wood with metal oklad
R2010.43
The Mandylion
Mid-16th Century
Greece
Egg tempera on wood
R2014.5.6
The New Testament Trinity
19th Century (late)
Kholui
Europe: Russia (Europe): Ivanovo (oblast): Kholui
Gesso, Varnish, Wood
1920,1118.1
This iconographic version of the Holy Trinity was called in Orthodox art the ‘New Testament Trinity’ or ‘Otechestvo’ in Russian to distinguish it from the ‘Old Testament Trinity’ (Hospitality of Abraham) in which three angels sit at the table under the oak of Mamre (Gen. 18:1–22).
Depictions of the New Testament Trinity are known from Byzantine manuscripts dating from the 11th century. Its symbolism is based on the words of St John the Evangelist: ‘I and my Father are one’ (10:30); ‘The Father is in me, and I in him’(10:38); ‘And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me’ (12:45). In the Orthodox tradition it was forbidden to depict God the Father so his image was rendered as Christ in old age.
This version first appears in the late 12th century. The traditional composition combines an image of God the Father as Christ in old age, dressed in a white cloth, and enthroned with the youthful Christ on his knees. Jesus holds in his hands a medallion with the Holy Ghost. The Museum’s icon is influenced by the Western iconographic tradition in which God the Father and Jesus Christ are both enthroned next to each other, with the Holy Ghost above them. This type, influenced by Catholic art, appears in Russian icon painting in the 17th century and becomes common in the 19th century.
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