Ruina idolorum. Iconography of Christian idoloclasm: East and West

Abstract

This article explores the medieval iconography of idoloclasm – the religiously motivated destruction of the pagan idols by Christian saints or simple clerics and laymen. The authors focus on the essential visual strategies the artists employed to represent the destruction or the fall of idols. The pagan deities were associated in the Christian discourse with the demons, the toppled or dismembered idols – with the triumph of Christianity over paganism. Idoloclasm was an important practice and a significant visual motif in the East and the West of the Christian world. The authors compare the images of idoloclasm created by the European and Russian artists who often relied on the same texts but tended to interpret them in different manner.