Iconoclasm In The Byzantine Empire

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The Byzantine Empire, formally known as the Eastern Roman Empire is an amazing example of how the Church and Catholic faith became a huge part of art and culture in the Byzantine Empire and later throughout all of Europe. When Emperor Theodosius took over the Roman Empire, he knew that it was too big for one person to manage. With the Western part seeping into Southern England and the Eastern half controlling most of Egypt and North Africa, Theodosius had to somehow split the massive Roman Empire in order to retain order. In the year 395 AD, Theodosius split the empire directly in half; he gave the West half to his son Honorius and he gave the Eastern half to his son Arcadius. The Western half of the Roman Empire was soon besieged by Barbarians…show more content…
When Pope Leo III was enthroned, he implemented the “Iconoclasm” law and concept, which comes from a strict rule within the Ten Commandments. Iconoclasm (Greek for “Image Breaking”) more specifically refers to the time period in the Eastern Roman Empire when most religious icons and works of art where destroyed or hidden by order of the Eastern Christian Church. Even though Iconoclasm created an era in Byzantine History where artists of all kinds where considered criminal by the Eastern Church, the Western Church eventually killed the policy and then Religious art throughout the Byzantine Empire sprouted into some incredible…show more content…
For instance, the mosaic style based around icons such and others like Jesus Christ make him and his Religious associates of all types look very important and knowledgeable. They do not usually boast a lot of Hierarchic scale, but they instead look like normal everyday individuals, which is a big part of Christianity’s goal of blending into the lives of everyday common people. The Byzantine style of art relates to Christian beliefs because it revolves around them, much like how Egyptian art revolved around the Pharaoh, the Nile and the afterlife; Byzantine Art revolves around the current zeitgeist and their zeitgeist was Christianity. Christianity impacted all of Byzantine art and it depicted them as frozen individuals all posed in a form which made them look like they where sending a crucial message to the person viewing the image. It is extremely effective in achieving the goals of the Pope and the Church because now every Christian church in the world boasts images like the mosaics of Jesus Christ found in
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