Early Byzantine carved ivory plaquette ( 4th century ) representing Ancient Philosophy being instructed by a Child in the message of Christianity . Greeks were involved in representing both sides of the disputations between Christian theologians and pagan philosophers in the early 4th century . The theme of this plaquette recalls Saint Paul ’ s Epistle to the Corinthians 1:27
“ God chose the little children of the world to shame the wise .” the Roman Empire and the later Byzantine Empire instrumental in the spread of Christianity , but it also provided the necessary intellectual rigor for the formulation of the Orthodox dogma . Many of the earliest Fathers of the Church were converts from the ancient religions of the Greeks and Romans . They had studied Plato and the other ancient Greek philosophers , the literature of the ancient writers , and the techniques of rhetoric . Because of their education , they became effective defenders of the Orthodox dogma .
During the iconoclastic controversy , the Greeks provided the argument that allowed for the continued use of icons . Greek philosophical thought from the 4th century BCE provided the intellectual justification for the creation of images of the divine , long before the advent of Christianity . Greek art dealt with the ideal as opposed to the veristic , or naturalistic , approach of the Romans . Art was meant to be infused with “ the essence of the Good ,” called sophrosyne , which , according to Plato , holds the entire universe together .
To the trained eye , a Greek icon reveals a rich field of signals , hints , and references to cultural and religious beliefs and events of long ago . Many elements of Greek icons serve a symbolic function : the colors used , the pose of the figures , the objects the figures hold , and different forms of perspective . The Greek icon portrays a different reality from that of a Western painting ; the icon ’ s reality is intentionally vexing and “ otherworldly ,” as it makes constant reference to Church dogma , which supersedes human reality . These elements require the viewer to decode or read the image .
Two strands of religious and philosophical thought dealt with the iconic representation of the divine . The first strand appears in the Old Testament , in the Ten Commandments ’ blanket prohibition against the making of any “ graven image .” Moses gave this commandment to the ancient Hebrews as an order , without any room for discussion or disagreement . This mindset has guided Hebraic and Islamic art from the beginning . Greek philosophical thought and culture – specifically , Plato himself delivered the second strand . The Greek philosophers recognized the pitfalls of humans trying to imagine or represent the divine . Through Socratic deliberation , Plato concluded that any humanly created image is fraught with faults and limitations . But he does not consider these limitations a reason for a prohibition if the creator — the artist — is cognizant of the limits of his creation .
The uses and styles of images underwent considerable change during the transition from Roman to Byzantine culture , as the Old Testament prohibitions came into active play . Icons and secular images continued to be created until the early 8th century , when Byzantium experienced a theological and societal crisis . The iconoclastic period during the violent internecine struggle of the 8th and 9th centuries lasted over one hundred years and saw the destruction of virtually all iconic images that had been created until then . Therefore , we have only scant examples of icons painted prior to the iconoclastic period , with the singular exception of the icons found in the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai , which escaped the destructive fury of the iconoclasts because of its inaccessibility .
The iconoclastic controversy was resolved only with imperial intervention , by the
18 ICONS OF THE HELLENIC WORLD