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93-753: The most venerated icon of the Hodegetria type, regarded as the original, was displayed in the Monastery of the Panaghia Hodegetria in Constantinople , which was built specially to contain it. Unlike most later copies it showed the Theotokos standing full-length. It was said to have been brought back from the Holy Land by Eudocia , the wife of emperor Theodosius II (408–450), and to have been painted by Saint Luke

186-546: A pagan or Gnostic context) in his Life of Alexander Severus (xxix) that formed part of the Augustan History . According to Lampridius, the emperor Alexander Severus ( r.  222–235 ), himself not a Christian, had kept a domestic chapel for the veneration of images of deified emperors, of portraits of his ancestors, and of Christ, Apollonius , Orpheus and Abraham . Saint Irenaeus , ( c.  130–202 ) in his Against Heresies (1:25;6) says scornfully of

279-466: 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 (354–430) 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

372-401: A blue undergarment with a red overgarment (representing a human who was granted gifts by God), and 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. The historical tradition of icons used for purposes other than visual depiction are

465-408: A church and admonished the other bishop that such images are "opposed   [...] to our religion". Elsewhere in his Church History , Eusebius reports seeing what he took to be portraits of Jesus, Peter and Paul , and also mentions a bronze statue at Banias /Paneas under Mount Hermon, of which he wrote, "They say that this statue is an image of Jesus". Further, he relates that locals regarded

558-517: A copy of the Feodorovskaya . She asked the icon to protect Mikhail and his royal descendants. The young tsar took a copy of the icon with him to Moscow, where it came to be regarded as the holy protectress of the Romanov dynasty . Apart from Kostroma, the Feodorovskaya has been venerated in nearby Yaroslavl , where some of the oldest copies of the icon may be found. In 1681, the icon appeared in

651-415: A dream to Ivan Pleshkov, who had been paralysed for 12 years. He was commanded to go to Kostroma, procure a copy of the icon, bring it back to Yaroslavl and to build a church for its veneration. As soon as he was cured of palsy, Pleshkov commissioned Gury Nikitin , the most famous wall-painter of 17th-century Russia, who hailed from Kostroma, to paint a copy of the miraculous icon. The Fyodorovskaya Church

744-503: A few conventional poses. Archangels bear a thin staff and sometimes a mirror. Colour plays an important role as well. Gold represents the radiance of Heaven; red, divine life. Blue is the colour of human life, white is the Uncreated Light of God, only used for resurrection and transfiguration of Christ. In icons of Jesus and Mary, Jesus wears red undergarment with a blue outer garment (representing God becoming human) and Mary wears

837-519: A letter to Jesus at Jerusalem, asking Jesus to come and heal him of an illness. This version of the Abgar story does not mention an image. A later account found in the Syriac Doctrine of Addai ( c.  400? ) mentions a painted image of Jesus in the story. Even later, in the 6th-century account given by Evagrius Scholasticus , the painted image transforms into an image that miraculously appeared on

930-447: A miracle in which Saint Plato of Ankyra appeared to a Christian in a dream. The saint was recognized because the young man had often seen his portrait. This recognition of a religious apparition from likeness to an image was also a characteristic of pagan pious accounts of appearances of gods to humans, and was a regular topos in hagiography. One critical recipient of a vision from Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki apparently specified that

1023-519: A natural progression for the image of Christ, the King of Heaven and Earth, to be paid similar veneration as that given to the earthly Roman emperor. However, the Orthodox, Eastern Catholics, and other groups insist on explicitly distinguishing the veneration of icons from the worship of idols by pagans. (See further below on the doctrine of veneration as opposed to worship.) After adoption of Christianity as

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1116-562: A number of images showing the icon in its shrine and in the course of being displayed publicly, which happened every Tuesday, and was one of the great sights of Constantinople for visitors. After the Fourth Crusade , from 1204 to 1261, it was moved to the Monastery of the Pantocrator , which had become the cathedral of the Venetian see during the period of Frankish rule , and since none of

1209-622: A part of church tradition. 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: "Church Tradition tells us, for example, of the existence of an Icon of the Savior during His lifetime (the 'Icon-Made-Without-Hands') and of Icons of the Most-Holy Theotokos [Mary] immediately after Him." Eastern Orthodoxy further teaches that "a clear understanding of

1302-558: 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. The tradition of acheiropoieta ( ἀχειροποίητα , literally 'not-made-by-hand') accrued to icons that are alleged to have come into existence miraculously, not by a human painter. Such images functioned as powerful relics as well as icons, and their images were naturally seen as authoritative as to

1395-519: A towel when Christ pressed the cloth to his wet face. Further legends relate that the cloth remained in Edessa until the 10th century, when it was taken by General John Kourkouas to Constantinople . It went missing in 1204 when Crusaders sacked Constantinople, but by then numerous copies had firmly established its iconic type. The 4th-century Christian Aelius Lampridius produced the earliest known written records of Christian images treated like icons (in

1488-525: 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. In later tradition the number of icons of Mary attributed to Luke greatly multiplied. The Salus Populi Romani , the Theotokos of Vladimir , the Theotokos Iverskaya of Mount Athos , the Theotokos of Tikhvin , the Theotokos of Smolensk and

1581-632: 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. An Italian "original" icon of the Hodegetria in Rome features in the crime novel Death and Restoration (1996) by Iain Pears , in the Jonathan Argyll series of art history mysteries. It gives its name to the church of Santa Maria Odigitria al Tritone in Rome. The Italian tradition spread also to Malta in

1674-534: Is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting , in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox , Oriental Orthodox , and Catholic churches. The most common subjects include Jesus , Mary , saints , and angels . Although especially associated with portrait-style images concentrating on one or two main figures, the term also covers most of the religious images in a variety of artistic media produced by Eastern Christianity , including narrative scenes, usually from

1767-596: Is also proclaimed in the language of colors". Theotokos of St. Theodore The Feodorovskaya Icon of the Mother of God ( Russian : Феодоровская икона Божией Матери ), also known as Our Lady of Saint Theodore and the Black Virgin Mary of Russia , is the patron icon of the Romanov family. It is one of the most venerated icons in the Upper Volga region . Her feast days are March 14 (27) and August 29. Since

1860-512: 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 1:1 stated that Eudokia (wife of emperor Theodosius II , d. 460) sent an image of the " Mother of God " named Icon of the Hodegetria from Jerusalem to Pulcheria , daughter of Arcadius ,

1953-403: Is no century between the fourth and the eighth in which there is not some evidence of opposition to images even within the Church". Nonetheless, popular favor for icons guaranteed their continued existence, while no systematic apologia for or against icons, or doctrinal authorization or condemnation of icons yet existed. The use of icons was seriously challenged by Byzantine Imperial authority in

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2046-571: Is nuzzling her cheek, which she slightly inclines towards him; famous versions include the Theotokos of Vladimir and the Theotokos of St. Theodore . Usually Christ is on the left in these images. Some Russians, however, believe that after the fall of Constantinople, St. Luke 's icon surfaced in Russia, where it was placed in the Assumption Cathedral in Smolensk , Russia . On several occasions, it

2139-473: Is presently enshrined above the high altar of the Benedictine Abbey church of Montevergine . Unfortunately, over the centuries this icon has been subjected to repeated repainting, so that it is difficult to determine what the original image of Mary's face would have looked like. However, Guarducci also claims that in 1950 an ancient image of Mary at the Church of Santa Francesca Romana was determined to be

2232-474: Is simple and mundane: Christians lacked land and capital. Art requires both. As soon as they began to acquire land and capital, Christians began to experiment with their own distinctive forms of art". Aside from the legend that Pilate had made an image of Christ, the 4th-century Eusebius of Caesarea , in his Church History , provides a more substantial reference to a "first" icon of Jesus. He relates that King Abgar of Edessa (died c.  50 CE ) sent

2325-523: Is that, during Vasily's absence in the forest, several residents of Kostroma claimed to have seen an apparition of Saint Theodore come up to the city with an icon in his hands. Since the icon was overwritten several times during its history, by the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917 , the image had nearly disappeared. Art historians disagree about when and where the icon was created. Some propose an early 11th-century date; others date it as late as

2418-545: Is this composite icon that became the one historically known as the Hodegetria. Another tradition states that when the last Latin Emperor of Constantinople, Baldwin II , fled Constantinople in 1261, he took this original circular portion of the icon with him. It remained in the possession of the Angevin dynasty , who likewise had it inserted into a larger image of Mary and the Christ child, which

2511-493: The Apostle John discovers that one of his followers has had a portrait made of him, and is venerating it: [John] went into the bedchamber, and saw the portrait of an old man crowned with garlands, and lamps and altars set before it. And he called him and said: Lycomedes, what do you mean by this matter of the portrait? Can it be one of thy gods that is painted here? For I see that you are still living in heathen fashion. Later in

2604-561: The Black Madonna of Częstochowa are examples, and another is in the cathedral on St Thomas Mount , which is believed to be one of the seven painted by Luke the Evangelist and brought to India by Thomas the Apostle . Ethiopia has at least seven more. Bissera V. Pentcheva concludes, "The myth [of Luke painting an icon] was invented in order to support the legitimacy of icon veneration during

2697-565: The Iconoclastic controversy " (8th and 9th centuries, much later than most art historians put it). According to Reformed Baptist pastor John Carpenter, by claiming the existence of a portrait of the Theotokos painted during her lifetime by the evangelist Luke, the iconodules "fabricated evidence for the apostolic origins and divine approval of images." In the period before and during the Iconoclastic Controversy , stories attributing

2790-590: The Odigitrievsky Cathedral in Ulan-Ude . They may refer to the Theotokos as "Our Lady of Smolensk." An Italian tradition relates that the original icon of Mary attributed to Luke, sent by Eudocia 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 in a very large rectangular icon of Mary holding the Christ child; it

2883-538: The Palladium (protective image) , the Palladium (classical antiquity) , the acheiropoieta , and various "folk" traditions associated with folk religion . Of these various forms the oldest tradition dates back to before the Christian era among the ancient Greeks. The various "folk" traditions are more poorly documented and often are associated with local folk narratives of uncertain origin. In English, since around 1600,

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2976-724: The 10th century, after the period of iconoclasm in Byzantine art , this image became more widely used, possibly developing from an earlier type where the Virgin's right hand was on Christ's knee. An example of this earlier type is the Salus Populi Romani icon in Rome . Many versions carry the inscription "Hodegetria" in the background and in the Byzantine context "only these named versions were understood by their medieval audience as conscious copies of

3069-455: The 2nd century. 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

3162-470: The 8th century identifies Luke the Evangelist as the first icon painter, but this might not reflect historical facts. A general assumption that early Christianity was generally aniconic , opposed to religious imagery in both theory and practice until about 200, has been challenged by Paul Corby Finney's analysis of early Christian writing and material remains (1994). His assumption distinguishes three different sources of attitudes affecting early Christians on

3255-602: 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; "[f]ew historians still hold it to have been

3348-464: The Bible or the lives of saints. Icons are most commonly painted on wood panels with egg tempera , but they may also be cast in metal or carved in stone or embroidered on cloth or done in mosaic or fresco work or printed on paper or metal, etc. Comparable images from Western Christianity may be classified as "icons", although "iconic" may also be used to describe the static style of a devotional image. In

3441-414: 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 1261 he took this original circular portion of the icon with him. This remained in the possession of the Angevin dynasty who had it inserted into a much larger image of Mary and

3534-417: The Christ child, which is presently enshrined above the high altar of the Benedictine Abbey church of Montevergine . This icon was subjected to repeated repainting over the subsequent centuries, so that it is difficult to determine what the original image of Mary's face would have looked like. Guarducci states that in 1950 an ancient image of Mary at the Church of Santa Francesca Romana was determined to be

3627-551: The Feodorovskaya follows the same Byzantine Eleusa (Tender Mercy) type as the Theotokos of Vladimir , pious legends declared it a copy of that famous image, purportedly created by Saint Luke . In Greek, Theotokos means "God-bearer". At the beginning of the XII century it was kept in an old wooden chapel near the city of Kitezh. It is believed that, before the Mongol invasion of Rus ,

3720-478: The Feodorovskaya was found intact on the third day after the fire. The people of Gorodets, at a distance to the east from Kostroma, learned about the miracle of the survival of the icon in the fire. They recognized the newly found icon as the one that used to be in their church. Church legends differ as to why the icon was named after Saint Theodore Stratelates ( Russian : Феодор Стратилат , Feodor Stratilat), not to be confused with Theodore Tyro ). One explanation

3813-474: The Gnostic Carpocratians : They also possess images, some of them painted, and others formed from different kinds of material; while they maintain that a likeness of Christ was made by Pilate at that time when Jesus lived among them. They crown these images, and set them up along with the images of the philosophers of the world that is to say, with the images of Pythagoras, and Plato, and Aristotle, and

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3906-484: The Greek god of healing, but the description of the standing figure and the woman kneeling in supplication precisely matches images found on coins depicting the bearded emperor Hadrian ( r.  117–138 ) reaching out to a female figure—symbolizing a province —kneeling before him. When asked by Constantia (Emperor Constantine 's half-sister) for an image of Jesus, Eusebius denied the request, replying: "To depict purely

3999-425: The Greek language, the term for icon painting uses the same word as for "writing", and Orthodox sources often translate it into English as icon writing . Eastern Orthodox tradition holds that the production of Christian images dates back to the very early days of Christianity , and that it has been a continuous tradition since then. Modern academic art history considers that, while images may have existed earlier,

4092-625: The Roman Empire probably saw the use of Christian images become very widespread among the faithful, though with great differences from pagan habits. Robin Lane Fox states "By the early fifth century, we know of the ownership of private icons of saints; by c.  480–500 , we can be sure that the inside of a saint's shrine would be adorned with images and votive portraits, a practice which had probably begun earlier." When Constantine himself ( r.  306–337 ) apparently converted to Christianity,

4185-499: The Rurikid family, it was customary for a groom to present his bride an icon representing her patron saint. On these grounds, Byzantine expert Fyodor Uspensky concluded that the Feodorovskaya was presented by Alexander Nevsky to his wife on the occasion of their wedding in 1239. If this theory is correct, the revered image of the Theotokos could have been commissioned by Alexander's father, Yaroslav II of Russia . His Christian name

4278-608: The Western church. Palladia were processed around the walls of besieged cities and sometimes carried into battle. 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: "The Orthodox Church maintains and teaches that the sacred image has existed from the beginning of Christianity", Léonid Ouspensky has written. Accounts that some non-Orthodox writers consider legendary are accepted as history within Eastern Orthodoxy, because they are

4371-724: The annual Makariev Fair , the icon was brought for veneration to Nizhny Novgorod . Western Christian women who married into the House of Romanov and converted to Russian Orthodoxy often took Feodorovna as patronymic in honour of the Feodorovskaya icon. Examples include two empresses Maria Feodorovna ( Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg and Dagmar of Denmark ); two empresses Alexandra Feodorovna ( Alix of Hesse and by Rhine and Charlotte of Prussia ); and grand duchesses Anna Feodorovna ( Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld ), Victoria Feodorovna ( Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha ) and Elizabeth Feodorovna ( Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine ). When

4464-468: The bearers staggered around the crowd, the icon seeming to lurch towards onlookers, who were then considered blessed by the Virgin. Clergy touched pieces of cotton-wool to the icon and handed them out to the crowd. A wall-painting in a church near Arta in Greece shows a great crowd watching such a display, whilst a street-market for unconcerned locals continues in the foreground. The Hamilton Psalter picture of

4557-580: The creation of icons to the New Testament period greatly increased, with several apostles and even Mary herself believed to have acted as the artist or commissioner of images (also embroidered in the case of Mary). There was a continuing opposition to images and their misuse within Christianity from very early times. "Whenever images threatened to gain undue influence within the church, theologians have sought to strip them of their power". Further, "there

4650-533: The earliest depictions of Christ, Mary and saints therefore comes from wall-paintings, mosaics and some carvings. They are realistic in appearance, in contrast to the later stylization. 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 can be judged from such items, the first depictions of Jesus were generic, rather than portrait images, generally representing him as

4743-517: The elements a few Christian writers criticized in pagan art—the ability to imitate life. The writers mostly criticized pagan works of art for pointing to false gods, thus encouraging idolatry. Statues in the round were avoided as being too close to the principal artistic focus of pagan cult practices, as they have continued to be (with some small-scale exceptions) throughout the history of Eastern Christianity . Nilus of Sinai ( d. c.  430 ), in his Letter to Heliodorus Silentiarius , records

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4836-604: The evangelist, the attributed author of the Gospel of Luke . The icon was double-sided, with a crucifixion on the other side, and was "perhaps the most prominent cult object in Byzantium". The original icon has probably now been lost, although various traditions claim that it was carried to Russia or Italy. There are a great number of copies of the image, including many of the most venerated of Russian icons, which have themselves acquired their own status and tradition of copying. There are

4929-476: The former emperor and father of Theodosius II. 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

5022-518: The greatest issue of the period". The Iconoclastic period began when images were banned by Emperor Leo III the Isaurian sometime between 726 and 730. Under his son Constantine V , a council forbidding image veneration was held at Hieria near Constantinople in 754. Image veneration was later reinstated by the Empress Regent Irene , under whom another council was held reversing the decisions of

5115-473: The human form of Christ before its transformation, on the other hand, is to break the commandment of God and to fall into pagan error." Hence Jaroslav Pelikan calls Eusebius "the father of iconoclasm". After the emperor Constantine I extended official toleration of Christianity within the Roman Empire in 313, huge numbers of pagans became converts. This period of the Historiography of Christianization of

5208-526: The icon mysteriously rose up in the air. The awestruck prince informed the citizens of Kostroma about the miracle he had witnessed and returned with a crowd of people to the forest. They fell prostrate before the icon and prayed to the Theotokos . They carried the icon to the city and placed it in the Assumption Cathedral. A conflagration destroyed the cathedral and most of its icons soon thereafter, but

5301-454: The icon was kept in a monastery near the town of Gorodets -on-the- Volga . After the Mongols sacked and burnt the town, the icon disappeared and was given up for lost. Several months later, on 16 August 1239, Prince Vasily of Kostroma wandered while hunting in a forest. While trying to find his way out of a thicket, he saw an icon concealed among fir branches. When he reached out to touch it,

5394-543: 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". In the Council of 860 it was stated that "all that is uttered in words written in syllables

5487-473: The illustrations of the shrine at the Hodegetria Monastery predate this interlude, the shrine may have been created after its return. There are a number of accounts of the weekly display, the two most detailed by Spaniards: Every Tuesday twenty men come to the church of Maria Hodegetria; they wear long red linen garments, covering up their heads like stalking clothes […] there is a great procession and

5580-444: The image as a memorial of the healing of the woman with an issue of blood by Jesus (Luke 8:43–48), because it depicted a standing man wearing a double cloak and with arm outstretched, and a woman kneeling before him with arms reaching out as if in supplication. John Francis Wilson suggests the possibility that this refers to a pagan bronze statue whose true identity had been forgotten. Some have thought it to represent Aesculapius ,

5673-637: The image was hardly visible. This was interpreted as a bad sign for the Romanov dynasty. Indeed, the Romanovs were dethroned four years later during the Russian Revolution. Unlike the other great icons of Russia, the Feodorovskaya was not transferred to a museum, because the image was impossible to discern. The Black Virgin was given to the sect of obnovlentsy , which had it restored in Moscow in 1928. After

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5766-520: The importance of Icons" was part of the church from its very beginning, and has never changed, although explanations of their importance may have developed over time. This is because icon painting is rooted in the theology of the Incarnation (Christ being the eikon of God) which did not change, though its subsequent clarification within the Church occurred over the period of the first seven Ecumenical Councils. Icons also served as tools of edification for

5859-504: The issue: "first that humans could have a direct vision of God; second that they could not; and, third, that although humans could see God they were best advised not to look, and were strictly forbidden to represent what they had seen". These derived respectively from Greek and Near Eastern pagan religions, from Ancient Greek philosophy, and from the Jewish tradition and the Old Testament. Of

5952-403: 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

6045-406: The majority of his subjects remained pagans. The Roman Imperial cult of the divinity of the emperor, expressed through the traditional burning of candles and the offering of incense to the emperor's image, was tolerated for a period because it would have been politically dangerous to attempt to suppress it. In the 5th century the courts of justice and municipal buildings of the empire still honoured

6138-412: The men clad in red go one by one up to the icon; the one with whom the icon is pleased is able to take it up as if it weighed almost nothing. He places it on his shoulder and they go chanting out of the church to a great square, where the bearer of the icon walks with it from one side to the other, going fifty times around the square. When he sets it down then others take it up in turn. Another account says

6231-411: The middle, the manner in which the god Zeus was depicted. Theodorus Lector remarked 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

6324-539: The new Russian tsar . Romanov lived in Kostroma with his mother, Xenia , who had been forced by the regent Boris Godunov to "take the veil" (join a convent and withdraw from public life). At first the nun advised her only son to stay in Kostroma and decline the offer of the Monomakh's Cap , or the position of tsar. She noted that three previous tsars had been either murdered or disgraced. Ksenia blessed her son by giving him

6417-518: The oldest in Russia. The cathedral was rebuilt in 2005. Another copy of the icon has been venerated in Gorodets, especially after the Feodorovsky Monastery was re-established in the early 18th century. A new copy of the icon was brought to it from Kostroma. This image was fitted into a golden riza inlaid with precious stones, so as to rival the original by its sumptuous decoration. During

6510-480: The only permissible Roman state religion under Theodosius I , Christian art began to change not only in quality and sophistication, but also in nature. This was in no small part due to Christians being free for the first time to express their faith openly without persecution from the state, in addition to the faith spreading to the non-poor segments of society. Paintings of martyrs and their feats began to appear, and early writers commented on their lifelike effect, one of

6603-641: The original Hodegetria in the Hodegon monastery", according to Maria Vasilakē. Full-length versions, both probably made by Greek artists, appear in mosaic in Torcello Cathedral (12th century) and the Cappella Palatina , Palermo (c. 1150), this last with the "Hodegetria" inscription. From the Hodegetria developed the Panagia Eleousa (Virgin of Tender Mercy), where Mary still indicates Christ, but he

6696-641: The passage John says, "But this that you have now done is childish and imperfect: you have drawn a dead likeness of the dead." At least some of the hierarchy of the Christian churches still strictly opposed icons in the early 4th century. At the Spanish non-ecumenical Synod of Elvira ( c.  305 ) bishops concluded, "Pictures are not to be placed in churches, so that they do not become objects of worship and adoration". Bishop Epiphanius of Salamis , wrote his letter 51 to John, Bishop of Jerusalem ( c.  394 ) in which he recounted how he tore down an image in

6789-400: The performance of miracles". Cyril Mango writes, "In the post-Justinianic period the icon assumes an ever increasing role in popular devotion, and there is a proliferation of miracle stories connected with icons, some of them rather shocking to our eyes". However, the earlier references by Eusebius and Irenaeus indicate veneration of images and reported miracles associated with them as early as

6882-566: The portrait of the reigning emperor in this way. In 425 Philostorgius , an allegedly Arian Christian, charged the Orthodox Christians in Constantinople with idolatry because they still honored the image of the emperor Constantine the Great in this way. Dix notes that this occurred more than a century before the first extant reference to a similar honouring of the image of Jesus or of his apostles or saints known today, but that it would seem

6975-465: The previous iconoclast council and taking its title as Seventh Ecumenical Council . The council anathemized all who hold to iconoclasm, i.e. those who held that veneration of images constitutes idolatry. Then the ban was enforced again by Leo V in 815. Finally, icon veneration was decisively restored by Empress Regent Theodora in 843 at the Council of Constantinople . From then on all Byzantine coins had

7068-512: The question of the appropriateness of images. Since then, icons have had a great continuity of style and subject, far greater than in the icons of the Western church . At the same time there have been change and development. Pre-Christian religions had produced and used art works. Statues and paintings of various gods and deities were regularly worshiped and venerated. It is unclear when Christians took up such activities. Christian tradition dating from

7161-454: The rest. They have also other modes of honouring these images, after the same manner of the Gentiles [pagans]. On the other hand, Irenaeus does not speak critically of icons or portraits in a general sense—only of certain gnostic sectarians' use of icons. Another criticism of image veneration appears in the non-canonical 2nd-century Acts of John (generally considered a gnostic work), in which

7254-542: The saint resembled the "more ancient" images of him—presumably the 7th-century mosaics still in Hagios Demetrios . Another, an African bishop, had been rescued from Arab slavery by a young soldier called Demetrios, who told him to go to his house in Thessaloniki. Having discovered that most young soldiers in the city seemed to be called Demetrios, he gave up and went to the largest church in the city, to find his rescuer on

7347-527: The shrine in the monastery appears to show the icon behind a golden screen of large mesh, mounted on brackets rising from a four-sided pyramidal base, like many large medieval lecterns . The heads of the red-robed attendants are level with the bottom frame of the icon. The icon disappeared during the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 when it was deposited at the Chora Church . It may have been cut into four pieces. In

7440-503: The sixteenth century and the Chapel of Our Lady of Itria is dedicated to the Hodegetria. Icon Autocephaly recognized by some autocephalous Churches de jure : Autocephaly and canonicity recognized by Constantinople and 3 other autocephalous Churches: Spiritual independence recognized by Georgian Orthodox Church: Semi-Autonomous: An icon (from Ancient Greek εἰκών ( eikṓn )  'image, resemblance')

7533-473: The tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty was celebrated in 1913, Nicholas II of Russia commissioned a copy of the Gorodets icon, which he placed at the Royal Cathedral of Our Lady Saint Theodore, constructed to a design by Vladimir Pokrovsky in the town of Tsarskoye Selo . It is said that Nicholas II could not have had a copy from the original image because the icon in Kostroma had blackened so badly that

7626-571: The three, Finney concludes that "overall, Israel's aversion to sacred images influenced early Christianity considerably less than the Greek philosophical tradition of invisible deity apophatically defined", so placing less emphasis on the Jewish background of most of the first Christians than most traditional accounts. Finney suggests that "the reasons for the non-appearance of Christian art before 200 have nothing to do with principled aversion to art, with other-worldliness, or with anti-materialism. The truth

7719-483: The tradition can be traced back only as far as the 3rd century, and that the images which survive from Early Christian art often differ greatly from later ones. The icons of later centuries can be linked, often closely, to images from the 5th century onwards, though very few of these survive. Widespread destruction of images occurred during the Byzantine Iconoclasm of 726–842, although this did settle permanently

7812-431: The true appearance of the subject: naturally and especially because of the reluctance to accept mere human productions as embodying anything of the divine, a commonplace of Christian deprecation of man-made " idols ". 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

7905-517: The turn of the 14th century. On the reverse side of the Feodorovskaya is an image representing Saint Paraskeva , a saint whose veneration started in the Novgorod Republic at the turn of the 13th century. Scholars believe that the image of Saint Paraskeva is contemporaneous with the image of the Theotokos on the other side. This dating seems to confirm the Novgorodian origin of the icon, as it

7998-413: The wall. During this period the church began to discourage all non-religious human images—the Emperor and donor figures counting as religious. This became largely effective, so that most of the population would only ever see religious images and those of the ruling class. 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

8091-544: The word palladium has been used figuratively to mean anything believed to provide protection or safety, and in particular in Christian contexts a sacred relic or icon believed to have a protective role in military contexts for a whole city, people or nation. Such beliefs first become prominent in the Eastern Churches in the period after the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I , and later spread to

8184-427: Was Feodor ( Феодор ) and his patron saint was Theodore Stratelates. There may have been several reasons why the icon could have surfaced in Gorodets or Kostroma. It is known that Alexander Nevsky had a palace in Gorodets and that he died in this town. Up to the 17th century, the icon was little known outside Gorodets and Kostroma. After 1613, its fame spread when the adolescent Mikhail Romanov had been elected as

8277-705: Was brought with great ceremony to Moscow , where the Novodevichy Convent was built in her honour. Her feast day is August 10. This icon, dated by art historians to the 11th century, is believed to have been destroyed by fire during the German occupation of Smolensk in 1941. A number of churches all over Russia are dedicated to the Smolensk Hodegetria, e.g., the Smolensky Cemetery Church in St. Petersburg and

8370-631: Was built to house the icon, with funds provided by ordinary people. A treatise details its construction and the miracles attributed to the icon in Yaroslavl. The church was consecrated on 24 July 1687. After the Communists destroyed the Dormition Cathedral of Yaroslavl during the Russian Revolution, the Fyodorovskaya Church served as the cathedral for the city and the archdiocese of Rostov ,

8463-447: Was gradual, it is possible to 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, "we first hear of the church's use of religious images". "As we reach the second half of the sixth century, we find that images are attracting direct veneration and some of them are credited with

8556-543: Was only in the 15th century that the veneration of Saint Paraskeva spread to other parts of the country. The saint's noble dress may indicate that the icon was intended as a wedding gift to a princess whose patron saint was Saint Paraskeva. According to Vasily Tatishchev , the only such princess known in the Rurikid family was Alexandra of Polotsk, the wife of Saint Alexander Nevsky of Novgorod . The feast day of St. Alexandra coincides with that of Saint Paraskeva (20 March). In

8649-597: 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, as the other examples in Rome have all been drastically over-painted. The surviving evidence for

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