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The word icon referred to any and all images, not just religious ones, but there was barely a need for a separate word for these.

It is in a context attributed to the 5th century that the first mention of an image of Mary painted from life appears, though earlier paintings on catacomb walls bear resemblance to modern icons of Mary. Theodorus Lector , in his 6th-century History of the Church 1: The image was specified to have been "painted by the Apostle Luke.

Margherita Guarducci relates a tradition that the original icon of Mary attributed to Luke, sent by Eudokia to Pulcheria from Palestine, was a large circular icon only of her head. When the icon arrived in Constantinople it was fitted in as the head into a very large rectangular icon of her holding the Christ child and it is this composite icon that became the one historically known as the Hodegetria.

She further states another tradition that when the last Latin Emperor of Constantinople, Baldwin II , fled Constantinople in he took this original circular portion of the icon with him. This remained in the possession of the Angevin dynasty who had it likewise inserted into a much larger image of Mary and the Christ child, which is presently enshrined above the high altar of the Benedictine Abbey church of Montevergine.

However, Guarducci also states that in an ancient image of Mary [15] at the Church of Santa Francesca Romana was determined to be a very exact, but reverse mirror image of the original circular icon that was made in the 5th century and brought to Rome, where it has remained until the present. Luke the Evangelist and brought to India by St.

In the period before and during the Iconoclastic Controversy , stories attributing the creation of icons to the New Testament period greatly increased, with several apostles and even the Virgin herself believed to have acted as the artist or commissioner of images also embroidered in the case of the Virgin.

There was a continuing opposition to images and their misuse within Christianity from very early times. The use of icons was seriously challenged by Byzantine Imperial authority in the 8th century. Though by this time opposition to images was strongly entrenched in Judaism and Islam, attribution of the impetus toward an iconoclastic movement in Eastern Orthodoxy to Muslims or Jews " seems to have been highly exaggerated, both by contemporaries and by modern scholars ".

Though significant in the history of religious doctrine, the Byzantine controversy over images is not seen as of primary importance in Byzantine history. Under his son Constantine V , a council forbidding image veneration was held at Hieria [24] near Constantinople in Image veneration was later reinstated by the Empress Regent Irene , under whom another council was held reversing the decisions of the previous iconoclast council and taking its title as Seventh Ecumenical Council.

The council anathemized all who hold to iconoclasm, i. Then the ban was enforced again by Leo V in And finally icon veneration was decisively restored by Empress Regent Theodora in From then on all Byzantine coins had a religious image or symbol on the reverse , usually an image of Christ for larger denominations, with the head of the Emperor on the obverse, reinforcing the bond of the state and the divine order. Such images functioned as powerful relics as well as icons, and their images were naturally seen as especially authoritative as to the true appearance of the subject: Like icons believed to be painted directly from the live subject, they therefore acted as important references for other images in the tradition.

Beside the developed legend of the mandylion or Image of Edessa , was the tale of the Veil of Veronica , whose very name signifies "true icon" or "true image", the fear of a "false image" remaining strong. Although there are earlier records of their use, no panel icons earlier than the few from the 6th century preserved at the Greek Orthodox Saint Catherine's Monastery in Egypt survive, [25] as the other examples in Rome have all been drastically over-painted.

The surviving evidence for the earliest depictions of Christ, Mary and saints therefore comes from wall-paintings, mosaics and some carvings. They are broadly similar in style, though often much superior in quality, to the mummy portraits done in wax encaustic and found at Fayyum in Egypt. As we may judge from such items, the first depictions of Jesus were generic rather than portrait images, generally representing him as a beardless young man. It was some time before the earliest examples of the long-haired, bearded face that was later to become standardized as the image of Jesus appeared.

When they did begin to appear there was still variation. Augustine of Hippo [27] said that no one knew the appearance of Jesus or that of Mary. However, Augustine was not a resident of the Holy Land and therefore was not familiar with the local populations and their oral traditions. Gradually, paintings of Jesus took on characteristics of portrait images. At this time the manner of depicting Jesus was not yet uniform, and there was some controversy over which of the two most common icons was to be favored.

The first or "Semitic" form showed Jesus with short and "frizzy" hair; the second showed a bearded Jesus with hair parted in the middle, the manner in which the god Zeus was depicted. Theodorus Lector remarked [28] that of the two, the one with short and frizzy hair was "more authentic".

To support his assertion, he relates a story excerpted by John of Damascus that a pagan commissioned to paint an image of Jesus used the "Zeus" form instead of the "Semitic" form, and that as punishment his hands withered. Though their development was gradual, we can date the full-blown appearance and general ecclesiastical as opposed to simply popular or local acceptance of Christian images as venerated and miracle-working objects to the 6th century, when, as Hans Belting writes, [29] "we first hear of the church's use of religious images.

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However, the earlier references by Eusebius and Irenaeus indicate veneration of images and reported miracles associated with them as early as the 2nd century. What might be shocking to our contemporary eyes may not have been viewed as such by the early Christians. In the icons of Eastern Orthodoxy, and of the Early Medieval West, very little room is made for artistic license.

Almost everything within the image has a symbolic aspect. Christ, the saints, and the angels all have halos. Angels and often John the Baptist have wings because they are messengers.

Figures have consistent facial appearances, hold attributes personal to them, and use a few conventional poses. Colour plays an important role as well. Gold represents the radiance of Heaven; red, divine life. Blue is the color of human life, white is the Uncreated Light of God, only used for resurrection and transfiguration of Christ. If you look at icons of Jesus and Mary: Jesus wears red undergarment with a blue outer garment God become Human and Mary wears a blue undergarment with a red overgarment human was granted gifts by God , thus the doctrine of deification is conveyed by icons.

Letters are symbols too. Most icons incorporate some calligraphic text naming the person or event depicted.

Even this is often presented in a stylized manner. In the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition there are reports of particular, Wonderworking icons that exude myrrh fragrant, healing oil , or perform miracles upon petition by believers. When such reports are verified by the Orthodox hierarchy, they are understood as miracles performed by God through the prayers of the saint, rather than being magical properties of the painted wood itself.

Theologically, all icons are considered to be sacred, and are miraculous by nature, being a means of spiritual communion between the heavenly and earthly realms. However, it is not uncommon for specific icons to be characterised as "miracle-working", meaning that God has chosen to glorify them by working miracles through them. Such icons are often given particular names especially those of the Virgin Mary , and even taken from city to city where believers gather to venerate them and pray before them.

Islands like that of Tinos are renowned for possessing such "miraculous" icons, and are visited every year by thousands of pilgrims. The Eastern Orthodox view of the origin of icons is generally quite different from that of most secular scholars and from some in contemporary Roman Catholic circles: Thus accounts such as that of the miraculous "Image Not Made by Hands", and the weeping and moving "Mother of God of the Sign" of Novgorod are accepted as fact: This is because icon painting is rooted in the theology of the Incarnation Christ being the eikon of God which didn't change, though its subsequent clarification within the Church occurred over the period of the first seven Ecumenical Councils.

Also, icons served as tools of edification for the illiterate faithful during most of the history of Christendom. Thus, icons are words in painting; they refer to the history of salvation and to its manifestation in concrete persons. In the Orthodox Church "icons have always been understood as a visible gospel, as a testimony to the great things given man by God the incarnate Logos" [34] In the Council of it was stated that "all that is uttered in words written in syllables is also proclaimed in the language of colors" [35].

Eastern Orthodox find the first instance of an image or icon in the Bible when God made man in His own image Septuagint Greek eikona , in Genesis 1: In Exodus, God commanded that the Israelites not make any graven image; but soon afterwards, he commanded that they make graven images of cherubim and other like things, both as statues and woven on tapestries.

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Later, Solomon included still more such imagery when he built the first temple. Eastern Orthodox believe these qualify as icons, in that they were visible images depicting heavenly beings and, in the case of the cherubim, used to indirectly indicate God's presence above the Ark. In the Book of Numbers it is written that God told Moses to make a bronze serpent, Nehushtan , and hold it up, so that anyone looking at the snake would be healed of their snakebites.

In John 3, Jesus refers to the same serpent, saying that he must be lifted up in the same way that the serpent was. John of Damascus also regarded the brazen serpent as an icon. Further, Jesus Christ himself is called the "image of the invisible God" in Colossians 1: As people are also made in God's images, people are also considered to be living icons, and are therefore "censed" along with painted icons during Orthodox prayer services. According to John of Damascus, anyone who tries to destroy icons "is the enemy of Christ, the Holy Mother of God and the saints, and is the defender of the Devil and his demons.

Basil of Caesarea , in his writing On the Holy Spirit , says: He also illustrates the concept by saying, "If I point to a statue of Caesar and ask you 'Who is that? Thus to kiss an icon of Christ, in the Eastern Orthodox view, is to show love towards Christ Jesus himself, not mere wood and paint making up the physical substance of the icon.

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Worship of the icon as somehow entirely separate from its prototype is expressly forbidden by the Seventh Ecumenical Council. Icons are often illuminated with a candle or jar of oil with a wick. Beeswax for candles and olive oil for oil lamps are preferred because they burn very cleanly, although other materials are sometimes used. The illumination of religious images with lamps or candles is an ancient practice pre-dating Christianity. Of the icon painting tradition that developed in Byzantium, with Constantinople as the chief city, we have only a few icons from the 11th century and none preceding them, in part because of the Iconoclastic reforms during which many were destroyed or lost, and also because of plundering by the Republic of Venice in during the Fourth Crusade , and finally the Fall of Constantinople in It was only in the Comnenian period — that the cult of the icon became widespread in the Byzantine world, partly on account of the dearth of richer materials such as mosaics, ivory , and vitreous enamels , but also because an iconostasis a special screen for icons was introduced then in ecclesiastical practice.

The style of the time was severe, hieratic and distant. In the late Comnenian period this severity softened, and emotion, formerly avoided, entered icon painting. Major monuments for this change include the murals at Daphni Monastery ca. Panteleimon near Skopje The Theotokos of Vladimir ca.

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The tendency toward emotionalism in icons continued in the Paleologan period , which began in Palaiologan art reached its pinnacle in mosaics such as those of Chora Church. In the last half of the 14th century, Palaiologan saints were painted in an exaggerated manner, very slim and in contorted positions, that is, in a style known as the Palaiologan Mannerism, of which Ochrid's Annunciation is a superb example.

After , the Byzantine tradition was carried on in regions previously influenced by its religion and culture — in the Balkans, Russia, and other Slavic countries, Georgia and Armenia in the Caucasus, and among Eastern Orthodox minorities in the Islamic world. In the Greek-speaking world Crete , ruled by Venice until the midth century, was an important centre of painted icons, as home of the Cretan School , exporting many to Europe.

Crete was under Venetian control from and became a thriving center of art with eventually a Scuola di San Luca , or organized painter's guild, the Guild of Saint Luke , on Western lines. Cretan painting was heavily patronized both by Catholics of Venetian territories and by Eastern Orthodox. For ease of transport, Cretan painters specialized in panel paintings, and developed the ability to work in many styles to fit the taste of various patrons. El Greco , who moved to Venice after establishing his reputation in Crete, is the most famous artist of the school, who continued to use many Byzantine conventions in his works.

In the city of Heraklion, on Crete, which at one time boasted at least painters, finally fell to the Turks, and from that time Greek icon painting went into a decline, with a revival attempted in the 20th century by art reformers such as Photis Kontoglou , who emphasized a return to earlier styles. Russian icons are typically paintings on wood, often small, though some in churches and monasteries may be as large as a table top. Many religious homes in Russia have icons hanging on the wall in the krasny ugol — the "red" corner see Icon corner.

There is a rich history and elaborate religious symbolism associated with icons.

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In Russian churches, the nave is typically separated from the sanctuary by an iconostasis , a wall of icons. As a general rule, these icons strictly followed models and formulas hallowed by usage, some of which had originated in Constantinople. As time passed, the Russians—notably Andrei Rublev and Dionisius —widened the vocabulary of iconic types and styles far beyond anything found elsewhere. The personal, improvisatory and creative traditions of Western European religious art are largely lacking in Russia before the 17th century, when Simon Ushakov 's painting became strongly influenced by religious paintings and engravings from Protestant as well as Catholic Europe.

In the midth century, changes in liturgy and practice instituted by Patriarch Nikon of Moscow resulted in a split in the Russian Orthodox Church. The traditionalists, the persecuted "Old Ritualists" or " Old Believers ", continued the traditional stylization of icons, while the State Church modified its practice. From that time icons began to be painted not only in the traditional stylized and nonrealistic mode, but also in a mixture of Russian stylization and Western European realism, and in a Western European manner very much like that of Catholic religious art of the time.

The Stroganov School and the icons from Nevyansk rank among the last important schools of Russian icon-painting. In Romania , icons painted as reversed images behind glass and set in frames were common in the 19th century and are still made. The process is known as reverse glass painting. Athos were gradually replaced by small, locally produced icons on glass, which were much less expensive and thus accessible to the Transylvanian peasants[.

The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and Oriental Orthodoxy also have distinctive, living icon painting traditions. Coptic icons have their origin in the Hellenistic art of Egyptian Late Antiquity, as exemplified by the Fayum mummy portraits.

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