Scientific Conference "Iconoclasm in the history and nowadays"

On Monday, November 14, Department of of Fine Arts and Architecture of Russian Institute for Art History, conducts scientific conference “Iconoclasm in the history and nowadays”, which will held at Institute’s Green Hall.

The idea is to consider the phenomenon of iconoclasm with the necessary breadth, not limited to the problems of Byzantine history and church art. Under the term iconoclasm, we mean all those cases where there is a destruction of works of art, or, to put it simply, the destruction of art. In the end, the iconoclasm in the Byzantine Empire – is not only a theological controversy, contradiction of biblical texts, emperors’ intrigues, conflict between Patriarchate and the monks, but also the destruction of the exceptional in quality works of art, many of which were no less valuable than, for example, Vladimir icon of the Mother of God or the Ravenna mosaics. At the same time, under the term iconoclasm it will be understood as the struggle with images, symbol that accompanies the whole history of art the same manner, however sometimes escalating in force. Iconoclasm in Byzantium in the XVI century, in the era of the Reformation (which in 2017 celebrates 500 years) was the sharp performance against the magical and mystical understanding of the image (which suggests the presence of the depicted in the image), against a direct body-spiritual experience and worship the image. Conference will once again discuss the eternal theme of philosophy, theology, theory of culture and art: the essence of imagery, imagery types of existence in human history, but also in nature, and perhaps in over-the natural dimension.

As a rule, individual cases of destruction of art is usually considered independently of each other in the context of different issues and discussions. There are the case to see the effect of some unique historical forces and factors, not paying attention to the links that may exist between them. The purpose of this conference – to collect opinions on the subject together and try to answer the question, what makes a person from time to time to destroy art.