Iconophilia: Politics, Religion, Preaching, and the Use of Images in Rome, c.680 - 880 (Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Studies)

Between the late seventh and the mid-ninth centuries, a debate about sacred images - conventionally addressed as 'Byzantine iconoclasm' - engaged monks, emperors, and popes in the Mediterranean area and on the European continent. The importance of this debate cannot be overstated; it challenged the relation between image, text, and belief. A series of popes staunchly in favour of sacred images acted consistently during this period in displaying a remarkable iconophilia or 'love for images'. Their multifaceted reaction involved not only council resolutions and diplomatic exchanges, but also public religious festivals, liturgy, preaching, and visual arts - the mass-media of the time. Embracing these tools, the popes especially promoted themes related to the Incarnation of God - which justified the production and veneration of sacred images - and extolled the role and the figure of the Virgin Mary. Despite their profound influence over Byzantine and western cultures of later centuries, the political, theological, and artistic interactions between the East and the West during this period have not yet been investigated in studies combining textual andmaterial evidence. By drawing evidence from texts and material culture - some of which have yet to be discussed against the background of the iconoclastic controversy - and by considering the role of oral exchange, Iconophiliaassesses the impact of the debate on sacred images and of coeval theological controversies in Rome and central Italy. By looking at intersecting textual, liturgical, and pictorial images which had at their core the Incarnate God and his human mother Mary, the book demonstrates that between c.680-880, by unremittingly maintaining the importance of the visual for nurturing beliefs and mediating personal and communal salvation, the popes ensured that the status of sacred images would remain unchallenged, at least until the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century.

Arts & Photography

Dell’Acqua, Francesca

History & Criticism

Routledge

Between the late seventh and the mid-ninth centuries, a debate about sacred images – conventionally addressed as ‘Byzantine iconoclasm’ – engaged monks, emperors, and popes in the Mediterranean area and on the European continent. The importance of this debate cannot be overstated; it challenged the relation between image, text, and belief. A series of popes staunchly in favour of sacred images acted consistently during this period in displaying a remarkable iconophilia or ‘love for images’. Their multifaceted reaction involved not only council resolutions and diplomatic exchanges, but also public religious festivals, liturgy, preaching, and visual arts – the mass-media of the time. Embracing these tools, the popes especially promoted themes related to the Incarnation of God – which justified the production and veneration of sacred images – and extolled the role and the figure of the Virgin Mary. 
Despite their profound influence over Byzantine and western cultures of later centuries, the political, theological, and artistic interactions between the East and the West during this period have not yet been investigated in studies combining textual and material evidence. By drawing evidence from texts and material culture – some of which have yet to be discussed against the background of the iconoclastic controversy – and by considering the role of oral exchange, Iconophilia assesses the impact of the debate on sacred images and of coeval theological controversies in Rome and central Italy. 
By looking at intersecting textual, liturgical, and pictorial images which had at their core the Incarnate God and his human mother Mary, the book demonstrates that between c.680–880, by unremittingly maintaining the importance of the visual for nurturing beliefs and mediating personal and communal salvation, the popes ensured that the status of sacred images would remain unchallenged, at least until the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century.

Restoring Byzantium: The Kariye Camii in Istanbul and the Byzantine Institute Restoration

Restoring Byzantium

Angelov, Dimiter

Maguire, Eunice D.

Teteriatnikov, Natalia

Osterhout, Robert G.

Brooks, Sarah T.

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

The Wallach Art Gallery

Enrico Castelnuovo (Roma 1929-Torino 2014) e stato uno dei piu importanti storici dell'arte europei, professore nelle Universita di Losanna e Torino, poi, dal 1983, alla Scuola Normale di Pisa. Questo libro nasce dalla giornata di studi organizzata per lui a Losanna il 13 maggio 2015, quando un folto gruppo di suoi allievi losannesi, torinesi e pisani e di colleghi degli anni di insegnamento in Svizzera si sono ritrovati, a quasi un anno dalla sua scomparsa, per ricordarlo, e per riflettere sul valore del suo insegnamento e della sua molteplice attivita nel campo della cultura, non soltanto storico-artistica. I tanti ambiti di studio da lui aperti alla curiosita e all'interesse dei suoi allievi vengono testimoniati negli interventi di Michele Bacci, Fabrizio Crivello, Francesca Dell'Acqua, Dario Gamboni, Alessio Monciatti, Enrica Pagella, Chiara Piccinini, Michele Tomasi; e i suoi anni di giovane insegnante all'Universita di Losanna, la sua capacita costruttiva ed energica di dialogare con un mondo diverso da quello nativo italiano emergono negli interventi di Nathalie Blancardi, Erica Deuber Ziegler, Jacques Gubler, Serena Romano. Completa il volume un appassionato ritratto scritto da Guido Castelnuovo. Il libro vuol essere un omaggio all'ampiezza del mondo mentale e culturale di Enrico Castelnuovo, ma anche al suo particolare modo di essere ''maestro'', un modo ironico e anche schivo, guardingo contro le emozioni ma instancabile e fertilissimo sollecitatore di curiosita e punti di vista.

Per Enrico Castelnuovo: Da Losanna, Le Vie Della Storia Dell'arte (I Libri Di Viella. Arte / Etudes Lausannoises D'Histoire de) (Italian Edition)

Romano, Serena

Gamboni, Dario

Tomasi, Michele

Bacci, Michele

Castelnuovo, Guido

Blancardi, Nathalie

Crivello, Fabrizio

Deuber Ziegler, Erica

Gubler, Jacques

Monciatti, Alessio

Pagella, Enrica

Piccinini, Chiara

Viella

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