Iconoclasm
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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<small>Illustration: ''[[The image breakers]]'', c.[[1566]] –[[1568]] by [[Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder]]</small>]] | <small>Illustration: ''[[The image breakers]]'', c.[[1566]] –[[1568]] by [[Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder]]</small>]] | ||
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'''Iconoclasm''' is the deliberate [[destruction]] within a [[culture]] of the culture's own [[religion|religious]] [[icon]]s and other [[symbol]]s or monuments, usually for [[religious]] or political motives. It is a frequent component of major political or religious changes. It is thus generally distinguished from the destruction by one culture of the images of another, for example by the Spanish in their American conquests. The term is also not generally used of the specific destruction of images of a ruler after his death or overthrow (''[[damnatio memoriae]]''), for example [[Akhenaten]] in [[Ancient Egypt]]. | '''Iconoclasm''' is the deliberate [[destruction]] within a [[culture]] of the culture's own [[religion|religious]] [[icon]]s and other [[symbol]]s or monuments, usually for [[religious]] or political motives. It is a frequent component of major political or religious changes. It is thus generally distinguished from the destruction by one culture of the images of another, for example by the Spanish in their American conquests. The term is also not generally used of the specific destruction of images of a ruler after his death or overthrow (''[[damnatio memoriae]]''), for example [[Akhenaten]] in [[Ancient Egypt]]. |
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Iconoclasm is the deliberate destruction within a culture of the culture's own religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually for religious or political motives. It is a frequent component of major political or religious changes. It is thus generally distinguished from the destruction by one culture of the images of another, for example by the Spanish in their American conquests. The term is also not generally used of the specific destruction of images of a ruler after his death or overthrow (damnatio memoriae), for example Akhenaten in Ancient Egypt.
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Reformation iconoclasm
Some of the Protestant reformers, in particular Andreas Karlstadt, Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin encouraged the removal of religious images by invoking the Decalogue's prohibition of idolatry and the manufacture of graven images of God. As a result, statues and images were damaged in spontaneous individual attacks as well as unauthorised iconoclastic riots. However, in most cases images were removed in an orderly manner by civil authorities in the newly reformed cities and territories of Europe.
Major instances
- Most of the Polytheistic religious deities and texts of Pre-Western Americas, Oceania, and Africa, were destroyed by Christian missionaries and their converts.
- In Judaism, King Hezekiah purged Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem and the Land of Israel of figures, including the Nehushtan, as recorded in the Second Book of Kings. His reforms were reversed in the reign of his son Manasseh.
- During the process of Christianisation under Constantine, groups destroyed the images and sculptures expressive of the Roman Empire's polytheist state religion.
- The Eastern Orthodox Church had a period of Byzantine iconoclasm during the late medieval years, in which some groups destroyed the church's religious imagery.
- During the Protestant Reformation and the European wars of religion, known as the Beeldenstorm in the Netherlands, Protestants destroyed traditional Catholic images in churches, including paintings, sculptures and other representations. In some instances, Protestants destroyed the imagery of other Protestants.
- Most of the moai of Easter Island were toppled during the 18th century in the iconoclasm of civil wars.
- During the French Revolution, people widely destroyed religious and monarchical imagery.
- During and after the Russian Revolution, widespread destruction of religious and secular imagery took place, as well as destruction of imagery related to the Czar.
- During and after the Xinhai Revolution in China, as well as during the later Cultural Revolution, there was widespread destruction of religious and secular imagery in China, including in Tibet.
- After the Second Vatican Council in the late twentieth century, some Roman Catholic parish churches discarded much of their traditional imagery, art, and architecture.
- During the 1956 Hungarian Revolution in Budapest, and through the fall of Communism in 1989, protesters often attacked and took down sculptures and images of Joseph Stalin, leader of the USSR.
- The Taliban destroyed two ancient statues of Buddha at Bamyan in Afghanistan.
See also
- Aniconism
- Art destruction
- Art vandalism
- Censorship
- Censorship by organized religion
- Chronoclasm
- Natural theology
- Taboo
- Iconolatry
Namesakes
- Iconoclasts: A Book of Dramatists by James Huneker
- The Temple of Iconoclasts by Juan Rodolfo Wilcock