Hagia Eirene and Byzantine Iconoclasm in Art

This simple black-on-gold mosaic cross is generally thought to be among the most significant artistic remains of the Byzantine Civilization. The reason why it’s so famous has everything to do with an ancient religious battle that lasted across two centuries and whose victors deliberately destroyed most sources that challenged their perspectives. I’m talking about the Iconoclast Controversy, and back in the 8th century, it was the most pressing public issue of the day.

The eastern half of Ancient Rome had succeeded in establishing a Christian empire based on the capital city of Constantinople (now it’s Istanbul #theymightbegiants), where public spending was lavished upon enormous Churches. Hagia Sophia might have been the most famous, but the building shown here, the Hagia Eirene, was actually older. The original was destroyed in the famous Nike Rebellion (a sports-team riot that ended up nearly taking down the government), so the Emperor Justinian built some of what you see here in the 6th century. But in 740 a terrible earthquake struck, doing massive damage to Hagia Eirene, and Emperor Constantine V had to remodel. And that’s when the cross was fashioned onto this apse.

Constantine V was a capable leader, but he took a strong stand against all depictions of saints, the Virgin Mary, and Jesus in artwork — aka, the Iconoclast side. Arguing that such images amounted to idolatry, he cracked down hard on those who publicly supported the veneration of icons (that’s the Iconophile position). The Byzantine people loved their Icons, and many of the Iconophiles were monks — these folks were literate, and trash-talked the anti-icon side. For instance, they gave Constantine V the moniker “Copronymus” ie, the dung-named.

And eventually, the Iconophiles won — as is obvious from the interior of any Eastern Orthodox Church, which is Icon-bedazzled. So this plain, bare cross is one of the few pieces of art to survive as witness to the losing side in this episode.