Iconoclasm: Rupture or Interlude? A Reassessment of the Evidence

Abstract

There are many “golden eras” in Byzantine art, all of them generated and nourished by the unquenchable creative forces commanded by the great center that was Constantinople. The largest impediment to the study of Byzantium, however, has been our lack of insight into the dynamics that caused this string of revivals; the reason for our ignorance being the catastrophes, historical and other, that have struck that great City. The period that separates the Golden Age of Justinian the Great from the so-called “renewal” after Iconoclasm is particularly poor in both art works and sources concerning monuments and artistic activity in Constantinople, and has been held in low esteem by historians. Still, it was an epoch to which can be ascribed an outburst of creativity unmatched in Byzantine history.