Art Assignment: Iconoclasm Essay

Research for religious art destroyed during conflict. Cite the website. What was the item, and when, where, why, and how was it destroyed? Was the site rebuilt? Who destroyed it? Discuss in length considering the following: What was the original significance? How did the culture go about remembering, or honoring that site after the destruction ? Have you ever had any significant item of spiritual relevance destroyed, and how did you handle it? Cite.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclasm â€Å" Iconoclasm[1] is the deliberate destruction within a culture of the culture’s own religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually for religious or political motives. It is a frequent component of major political or religious changes. The term does not generally encompass the specific destruction of images of a ruler after his death or overthrow (damnatio memoriae), for example Akhenaten in Ancient Egypt.People who engage in or support iconoclasm are called â€Å"iconoclasts†, a term that has come to be applied figuratively to any individual who challenges established dogma or conventions. Conversely, people who revere or venerate religious images are (by iconoclasts) called â€Å"iconolaters†. In a Byzantine context, they are known as â€Å"iconodules†, or â€Å"iconophiles†.Iconoclasm may be carried out by people of a different religion, but is often the result of sectarian disputes between factions of the same religion. In Christia nity, iconoclasm has generally been motivated by people who adopt a literal interpretation of the Ten Commandments, which forbid the making and worshipping of â€Å"graven images or any likeness of anything†.[2] The degree of iconoclasm among Christian sects greatly varies. Example of iconoclasm in the 16th century during the Reformation. Relief statues in St. Stevenskerk in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, were attacked and defaced in the Beeldenstorm. in Europe in the 16th century. During these spates of iconoclasm, Catholic art and many forms of church fittings and decoration were destroyed in unofficial or mob actions by nominally Calvinist Protestant crowds as part of the Protestant Reformation. Most of the destruction was of art in churches and public places. The Dutch term specifically refers to the wave of disorderly attacks in the summer of 1566 that spread rapidly through the Low Countries from south to north, but similar outbreaks of iconoclasm took place in other parts of Europe, especially in Switzerland and the Holy Roman Empire in the period between 1522 and 1566, notably Zà ¼rich (in 1523), Copenhagen (1530), Mà ¼nster (1534), Geneva (1535), and Augsburg (1537). In England there was both government-sponsored removal of images and also spontaneous attacks from 1535 onwards, and in Scotland from 1559.[2] In France there were several outbreaks as part of the French Wars of Religion from 1560 onwards. â€Å" I’ve never had anything of such significance been broken of mine.