Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ICONOPHILIA (Religion, Politics and the Arts in Early Medieval Italy Against the Background of the ‘Image Struggle’ (680-850))
Período documentado: 2015-08-01 hasta 2017-07-31
Sacred images have for different reasons inspired devotion or spurred iconoclastic reactions and cultural opposition world-wide and often in human history – unfortunately also in the last fifteen years. The place of sacred image in the actual Christian religious mentality – that is the way in which cult images stimulate reactions, are perceived, venerated, chosen as personal “talismans” and intercessors with the divine in contemporary culture – was radically shaped by the intense period of the Byzantine “image struggle.” This project, undertaken at the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies in Birmingham, College of Arts and Law, University of Birmingham, specifically focused firstly on the development and dissemination of the theological matters that affected the policies of the Roman Catholic Church between the late seventh-mid ninth century, and secondly on the “translation” of these theological matters into a literary and visual imagery. In the period 680–850 a great debate about the cult of sacred images – the Byzantine “image struggle” or iconoclasm – engaged monks, emperors, popes.
The topics addressed by this project have a striking, contemporary resonance, and therefore can exert a potential impact on wider society: the cultural significance of images and the meaning of their destruction; and the (not yet assessed) impact on western society of ideas, beliefs and customs conveyed by eastern migrants during the period of the Byzantine iconoclasm as well as today.
The topics addressed by this project have a striking, contemporary resonance, and therefore can exert a potential impact on wider society: the cultural significance of images and the meaning of their destruction; and the (not yet assessed) impact on western society of ideas, beliefs and customs conveyed by eastern migrants during the period of the Byzantine iconoclasm as well as today.
Over the duration of the fellowship, I have been intensively working on the principal output of the project, that is a monograph which will be submitted for publication in late 2017, as well as on articles for peer-reviewed journals and books. At the same time, I have been engaged into monthly dissemination activities involving not only the academic milieu but also non-specialist audiences, such as primary school children. I have spent my secondments at the Bibliotheca Hertziana/Max-Planck-Gesellschaft Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Rome, where I have found essential material for my research. At the University of Birmingham I have also been involved in a number of training activities on funding, public engagement, dissemination, research strategies, equality and diversity. I have occasionally offered mentorship to BA/MA/PhD students, and taught a few seminars in the MA in Medieval Studies.
In my monograph and related articles and book chapters I have definitely moved the subject beyond the state of the art. In fact, despite Byzantine Iconoclasm has been the object of intense investigation, the discourse has been based on a limited set of sources. Moreover, the modalities in theological ideas and religious attitudes travelled and were disseminated, and the specific effects they eventually had on western religious mentality and on the production of literary and visual imagery have been rarely addressed. While it is usually agreed that the Byzantine “image struggle” impacted on western society, very little is known about the specifics of that process. Much needs to be understood, and it has to be admitted that a few methodological problems have hindered a wider picture. Firstly, I had to overcome the usual separation of Medieval from Byzantine studies, and secondly the separation of textual from visual studies. I have consistently applied an interdisciplinary approach involving different kinds of primary and secondary sources (textual, visual). As I have tested during the public lectures I delivered, my method has inspired scholars and a general audience to embrace a wider cultural-historical frame when dealing with the past.
In my reconstruction I have incorporated literary sources as well as material evidence, from the East and from the West, which I have analysed for the first time against the background of Byzantine Iconoclasm. I have discussed theological issues vis-à-vis with textual and visual materials within a scenario which embraces the Mediterranean, the Continent, and occasionally the British Isles. In particular, I have focussed on themes related to the Virgin Mary and her role in the Incarnation. Since the monothelete controversy of the mid-seventh century about the single will of God, the figure and the role of Mary were of a fundamental importance, since she had been the vehicle for the Incarnation which made God fully human, visible, and therefore depictable, defying logical explanations. Though, her position with regards to Iconoclasm is not clear yet. While recent and on-going investigation has reassessed Mary’s cult in Byzantium highlighting her consolidation after Iconoclasm, the connection between Mary and the iconophile stance has not yet been demonstrated. What has also escaped the attention of scholar, is that the way Mary came to be perceived in the western collective imagination – at least until the Protestant Church Reformation – was informed by the period of the Byzantine Iconoclasm. As for the impact on the wider society, the definition of Mary’s status in the medieval western culture can lead to a deeper understanding of Mary as role model for rulership and leadership: how her figure informed the way female and male leaders conceived of themselves? Which virtues they associated with their role? Moreover, the issue of Iconoclasm and the related subversion of values is – unfortunately – not confined to the study of the past, but part of the daily news. My forthcoming monograph, which is aimed not only at an academic audience, wishes to stimulate reflections on religious-political controversies and the possibility of agreeing shared cultural values to overcome differences.
In my reconstruction I have incorporated literary sources as well as material evidence, from the East and from the West, which I have analysed for the first time against the background of Byzantine Iconoclasm. I have discussed theological issues vis-à-vis with textual and visual materials within a scenario which embraces the Mediterranean, the Continent, and occasionally the British Isles. In particular, I have focussed on themes related to the Virgin Mary and her role in the Incarnation. Since the monothelete controversy of the mid-seventh century about the single will of God, the figure and the role of Mary were of a fundamental importance, since she had been the vehicle for the Incarnation which made God fully human, visible, and therefore depictable, defying logical explanations. Though, her position with regards to Iconoclasm is not clear yet. While recent and on-going investigation has reassessed Mary’s cult in Byzantium highlighting her consolidation after Iconoclasm, the connection between Mary and the iconophile stance has not yet been demonstrated. What has also escaped the attention of scholar, is that the way Mary came to be perceived in the western collective imagination – at least until the Protestant Church Reformation – was informed by the period of the Byzantine Iconoclasm. As for the impact on the wider society, the definition of Mary’s status in the medieval western culture can lead to a deeper understanding of Mary as role model for rulership and leadership: how her figure informed the way female and male leaders conceived of themselves? Which virtues they associated with their role? Moreover, the issue of Iconoclasm and the related subversion of values is – unfortunately – not confined to the study of the past, but part of the daily news. My forthcoming monograph, which is aimed not only at an academic audience, wishes to stimulate reflections on religious-political controversies and the possibility of agreeing shared cultural values to overcome differences.