Iconoclast

Iconoclasm (from Greek: grc, εἰκών, lit=figure, icon, translit=eikṓn, label=none + grc, κλάω, lit=to break, translit=kláō, label=none)From grc, εἰκών + κλάω, lit=image-breaking. ''Iconoclasm'' may also be considered as a back-formation from ''iconoclast'' (Greek: εἰκοκλάστης). The corresponding Greek word for iconoclasm is εἰκονοκλασία, ''eikonoklasia''. is the social belief in the importance of the destruction of icons and other images or monuments, most frequently for religious or political reasons. People who engage in or support iconoclasm are called iconoclasts, a term that has come to be figuratively applied to any individual who challenges "cherished beliefs or venerated institutions on the grounds that they are erroneous or pernicious."

Conversely, one who reveres or venerates religious images is called (by iconoclasts) an '' iconolater''; in a Byzantine context, such a person is called an ''iconodule'' or ''iconophile.'' Iconoclasm does not generally encompass the destruction of the images of a specific ruler after his or her death or overthrow, a practice better known as ''damnatio memoriae''.

While iconoclasm may be carried out by adherents of a different religion, it is more commonly the result of sectarian disputes between factions of the same religion. The term originates from the Byzantine Iconoclasm, the struggles between proponents and opponents of religious icons in the Byzantine Empire from 726 to 842 AD. Degrees of iconoclasm vary greatly among religions and their branches, but are strongest in religions which oppose idolatry, including the Abrahamic religions. Outside of the religious context, iconoclasm can refer to movements for widespread destruction in symbols of an ideology or cause, such as the destruction of monarchist symbols during the French Revolution.

Early religious iconoclasm

Ancient era

In the Bronze Age, the most significant episode of iconoclasm occurred in Egypt during the Amarna Period, when Akhenaten, based in his new capital of Akhetaten, instituted a significant shift in Egyptian artistic styles alongside a campaign of intolerance towards the traditional gods and a new emphasis on a state monolatristic tradition focused on the god Aten, the Sun disk—many temples and monuments were destroyed as a result:

In rebellion against the old religion and the powerful priests of Amun, Akhenaten ordered the eradication of all of Egypt's traditional gods. He sent royal officials to chisel out and destroy every reference to Amun and the names of other deities on tombs, temple walls, and cartouches to instill in the people that the Aten was the one true god.

Public references to Akhenaten were destroyed soon after his death. Comparing the ancient Egyptians with the Israelites, Jan Assmann writes:

For Egypt, the greatest horror was the destruction or abduction of the cult images. In the eyes of the Israelites, the erection of images meant the destruction of divine presence; in the eyes of the Egyptians, this same effect was attained by the destruction of images. In Egypt, iconoclasm was the most terrible religious crime; in Israel, the most terrible religious crime was idolatry. In this respect Osarseph alias Akhenaten, the iconoclast, and the Golden Calf, the paragon of idolatry, correspond to each other inversely, and it is strange that Aaron could so easily avoid the role of the religious criminal. It is more than probable that these traditions evolved under mutual influence. In this respect, Moses and Akhenaten became, after all, closely related.

Judaism

According to the Hebrew Bible, God instructed the Israelites to "destroy all heengraved stones, destroy all hemolded images, and demolish all hehigh places" of the indigenous Canaanite population as soon as they entered the Promised Land.

In Judaism, King Hezekiah purged Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem and all figures were also destroyed in the Land of Israel, including the Nehushtan, as recorded in the Second Book of Kings. His reforms were reversed in the reign of his son Manasseh.

Iconoclasm in Christian history

Scattered expressions of opposition to the use of images have been reported: in 305–306 AD, the Synod of Elvira appeared to endorse iconoclasm; Canon 36 states, "Pictures are not to be placed in churches, so that they do not become objects of worship and adoration."A possible translation is also: "There shall be no pictures in the church, lest what is worshipped and adored should be depicted on the walls." Proscription ceased after the destruction of pagan temples. However, widespread use of Christian iconography only began as Christianity increasingly spread among gentiles after the legalization of Christianity by Roman Emperor Constantine (c. 312 AD). During the process of Christianisation under Constantine, Christian groups destroyed the images and sculptures expressive of the Roman Empire's polytheist state religion.

Among early church theologians, iconoclastic tendencies were supported by theologians such as: Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Lactantius, Justin Martyr, Eusebius and Epiphanus.

Byzantine era

The period after the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian (527–565) evidently saw a huge increase in the use of images, both in volume and quality, and a gathering aniconic reaction.

One notable change within the Byzantine Empire came in 695, when Justinian II's government added a full-face image of Christ on the obverse of imperial gold coins. The change caused the Caliph Abd al-Malik to stop his earlier adoption of Byzantine coin types. He started a purely Islamic coinage with lettering only. Cormack, Robin. 1985. ''Writing in Gold, Byzantine Society and its Icons''. London: George Philip. . A letter by the Patriarch Germanus, written before 726 to two iconoclast bishops, says that "now whole towns and multitudes of people are in considerable agitation over this matter," but there is little written evidence of the debate.

Government-led iconoclasm began with Byzantine Emperor Leo III, who issued a series of edicts between 726 and 730 against the veneration of images. The religious conflict created political and economic divisions in Byzantine society; iconoclasm was generally supported by the Eastern, poorer, non-Greek peoples of the Empire who had to frequently deal with raids from the new Muslim Empire. Mango, Cyril. 2002. ''The Oxford History of Byzantium''. Oxford University Press. On the other hand, the wealthier Greeks of Constantinople and the peoples of the Balkan and Italian provinces strongly opposed iconoclasm.

Pre-Reformation

Peter of Bruys opposed the usage of religious images, the Strigolniki were also possibly iconoclastic. Claudius of Turin was the bishop of Turin" style="font-size:88%; line-height:130%; border-bottom:1px #aaa solid;" heights="210">
Somnath temple ruins (1869).jpg, The Somnath Temple in Gujarat was repeatedly destroyed by Islamic armies and rebuilt by Hindus. It was destroyed by Delhi Sultanate's army in 1299 CE. The present temple was reconstructed in Chalukyan style of Hindu temple architecture and completed in May 1951.

Temple Of Vishveshwur Benares by James Prinsep 1834 (cropped).jpg, The Kashi Vishwanath Temple was repeatedly destroyed by Islamic invaders such as Qutb al-Din Aibak.
Sun temple martand indogreek.jpg, Ruins of the Martand Sun Temple. The temple was destroyed on the orders of Muslim Sultan Sikandar Butshikan in the early 15th century, with demolition lasting a year.
Temple de Mînâkshî01.jpg, The armies of Delhi Sultanate led by Muslim Commander Malik Kafur plundered the Meenakshi Temple and looted it of its valuables.
Warangal_fort.jpg, Kakatiya Kala Thoranam (Warangal Gate) built by the Kakatiya dynasty in ruins; one of the many temple complexes destroyed by the Delhi Sultanate.
Rani ki vav1.jpg, Rani Ki Vav is a stepwell, built by the Chaulukya dynasty, located in Patan, Gujarat, Patan; the city was sacked by Sultanate of Delhi, Sultan of Delhi Qutb-ud-din Aybak between 1200 and 1210, and it was destroyed by the Allauddin Khilji in 1298.
Elevation of Kirtistambh Rudramahalaya Sidhpur Gujarat India.jpg, Artistic rendition of the Kirtistambh at Rudra Mahalaya Temple. The temple was destroyed by Alauddin Khalji.
Exteriors Carvings of Shantaleshwara Shrine 02.jpg, Exterior wall reliefs at Hoysaleswara Temple. The temple was twice sacked and plundered by the Delhi Sultanate.

The Somnath temple and Mahmud of Ghazni

Perhaps the most notorious episode of iconoclasm in India was Mahmud of Ghazni's attack on the Somnath Temple from across the Thar Desert.Yagnik, Achyut, and Suchitra Sheth. 2005. ''Shaping of Modern Gujarat.'' Penguin UK. . The temple was first raided in 725, when Junayad, the governor of History of Sindh, Sind, sent his armies to destroy it. In 1024, during the reign of Bhima I, the prominent Turkic-Muslim ruler Mahmud of Ghazni raided Gujarat, plundering the Somnath Temple and breaking its jyotirlinga despite pleas by Brahmins not to break it. He took away a booty of 20 million dinars.Romila Thapar, Thapar, Romila. 2004. ''Somanatha: The Many Voices of a History''. Penguin Books, Penguin Books India. . The attack may have been inspired by the belief that an idol of the goddess Manat (goddess), Manat had been secretly transferred to the temple. According to the Ghaznavid court-poet Farrukhi Sistani, who claimed to have accompanied Mahmud on his raid, ''Somnat'' (as rendered in Persian language, Persian) was a garbled version of ''su-manat'' referring to the goddess Manat. According to him, as well as a later Ghaznavid historian Abu Sa'id Gardezi, the images of the other goddesses were destroyed in Arabia but the one of Manat was secretly sent away to Kathiawar (in modern Gujarat) for safekeeping. Since the idol of Manat was an Aniconism, aniconic image of black stone, it could have been easily confused with a lingam at Somnath. Mahmud is said to have broken the idol and taken away parts of it as loot and placed so that people would walk on it. In his letters to the Caliphate, Mahmud exaggerated the size, wealth and religious significance of the Somnath temple, receiving grandiose titles from the Caliph in return.

The wooden structure was replaced by Kumarapala (Chaulukya dynasty), Kumarapala (r. 1143–72), who rebuilt the temple out of stone.

Mamluk dynasty onward

Historical records compiled by Muslim historian Maulana Hakim Saiyid Abdul Hai attest to the religious violence during the Mamluk dynasty (Delhi), Mamluk dynasty under Qutb-ud-din Aybak. The first mosque built in Delhi, the "Qutb Minar complex#Quwwat-ul-Islam Mosque, Quwwat al-Islam" was built with demolished parts of 20 Hindu and Jain temples. This pattern of iconoclasm was common during his reign.

During the Delhi Sultanate, a Muslim army led by Malik Kafur, a general of Alauddin Khalji, pursued four violent campaigns into south India, between 1309 and 1311, against the Hindu kingdoms of Devgiri (Maharashtra), Warangal (Telangana), Dwarasamudra (Karnataka) and Madurai (Tamil Nadu). Many Temples were plundered; Hoysaleswara Temple and others were ruthlessly destroyed.

In Kashmir, Sikandar Shah Miri (1389–1413) began expanding, and unleashed religious violence that earned him the name ''but-shikan'', or 'idol-breaker'. He earned this sobriquet because of the sheer scale of desecration and destruction of Hindu and Buddhist temples, shrines, ashrams, hermitages, and other holy places in what is now known as Kashmir and its neighboring territories. Firishta states, "After the emigration of the Brahmins, Sikundur ordered all the temples in Kashmeer to be thrown down." He destroyed vast majority of Hindu and Buddhist temples in his reach in Kashmir region (north and northwest India).

In the 1460s, Kapilendra Deva, Kapilendra, founder of the Suryavamsi Gajapati dynasty, sacked the Shaivism, Shaiva and Vaishnavism, Vaishnava temples in the Cauvery delta in the course of wars of conquest in the Tamil country. Vijayanagara king Krishnadevaraya looted a Bala Krishna temple in Udayagiri in 1514, and looted a Vitthala temple in Pandharpur in 1520.

A regional tradition, along with the Hindu text ''Madala Panji'', states that Kalapahar attacked and damaged the Konark Sun Temple
in 1568, as well as many others in Orissa.

Some of the most dramatic cases of iconoclasm by Muslims are found in parts of India where Hindu and Buddhist temples were razed and mosques erected in their place. Aurangzeb, the 6th Mughal Emperor, destroyed the famous Hindu temples at Varanasi and Mathura, turning back on his ancestor Akbar's policy of religious freedom and establishing Sharia across his empire.

In modern India, the most high-profile case was in 1992. Hindus, led by the Vishva Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, destroyed the 430-year-old Islamic Babri Masjid in Ayodhya which was built after destroying the Ram Mandir. This was to reclaim their temple which was destroyed by Islamic iconoclasts.

Iconoclasm in East Asia

China

There have been Four Buddhist Persecutions in China, a number of anti-Buddhist campaigns in Chinese history that led to the destruction of Buddhist temples and images. One of the most notable of these campaigns was the Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution of the Tang dynasty.

During and after the 1911 Xinhai revolution, Xinhai Revolution, there was widespread destruction of religious and secular images in China.

During the Northern Expedition in Guangxi in 1926, Kuomintang General Bai Chongxi led his troops in destroying Buddhist temples and smashing Buddhist images, turning the temples into schools and Kuomintang party headquarters. It was reported that almost all of the viharas in Guangxi were destroyed and the bhikkhu, monks were removed. Bai also led a wave of anti-foreignism in Guangxi, attacking Americans, Europeans, and other foreigners, and generally making the province unsafe for foreigners and missionaries. Westerners fled from the province and some Chinese Christians were also attacked as imperialist agents. The three goals of the movement were anti-foreignism, anti-imperialism and anti-religion. Bai led the anti-religious movement against superstition. Huang Shaohong, also a Kuomintang member of the New Guangxi clique, supported Bai's campaign. The anti-religious campaign was agreed upon by all Guangxi Kuomintang members.

There was extensive destruction of religious and secular imagery in Tibet after it was Chinese expedition to Tibet (1910), invaded and occupation of Tibet, occupied by China.

Many religious and secular images were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution of 1966–1976, ostensibly because they were a holdover from China's traditional past (which the Communist regime led by Mao Zedong reviled). The Cultural Revolution included widespread destruction of historic artworks in public places and private collections, whether religious or secular. Objects in state museums were mostly left intact.

South Korea

According to an article in ''Buddhist-Christian Studies'':

Over the course of the last decade [1990s] a fairly large number of Buddhist temples in South Korea have been destroyed or damaged by fire by Christian fundamentalists. More recently, Buddhist statues have been identified as idols, and attacked and decapitated in the name of Jesus. Arrests are hard to effect, as the arsonists and vandals work by stealth of night.

Angkor

Beginning around 1243 AD with the death of Indravarman II, the Khmer Empire went through a period of iconoclasm. At the beginning of the reign of the next king, Jayavarman VIII, the Kingdom went back to Hinduism in Cambodia, Hinduism and the worship of Shiva. Many of the Buddhist images were destroyed by Jayavarman VIII, who reestablished previously Hindu shrines that had been converted to Buddhism by his predecessor. Carvings of the Buddha at temples such as Preah Khan were destroyed, and during this period the Bayon Temple was made a temple to Shiva, with the central 3.6 meter tall statue of the Buddha cast to the bottom of a nearby well.

Political iconoclasm

''Damnatio memoriae''

Revolutions and changes of regime, whether through uprising of the local population, foreign invasion, or a combination of both, are often accompanied by the public destruction of statues and monuments identified with the previous regime. This may also be known as ''damnatio memoriae'', the ancient Roman practice of official obliteration of the memory of a specific individual. Stricter definitions of "iconoclasm" exclude both types of action, reserving the term for religious or more widely cultural destruction. In many cases, such as Revolutionary Russia or Ancient Egypt, this distinction can be hard to make.

Among Roman emperors and other political figures subject to decrees of ''damnatio memoriae'' were Sejanus, Publius Septimius Geta, and Domitian. Several Emperors, such as Domitian and Commodus had during their reigns erected numerous statues of themselves, which were pulled down and destroyed when they were overthrown.

The perception of ''damnatio memoriae'' in the Classical world was an act of erasing memory has been challenged by scholars who have argued that it "did not negate historical traces, but created gestures which served to ''dishonor'' the record of the person and so, in an oblique way, to confirm memory," and was in effect a spectacular display of "pantomime forgetfulness." Examining cases of political monument destruction in modern Irish history, Guy Beiner has demonstrated that iconoclastic vandalism often entails subtle expressions of ambiguous remembrance and that, rather than effacing memory, such acts of de-commemorating effectively preserve memory in obscure forms.

During the French Revolution

Throughout the radical phase of the French Revolution, iconoclasm was supported by members of the government as well as the citizenry. Numerous monuments, religious works, and other historically significant pieces were destroyed in an attempt to eradicate any memory of the Old Regime. A statue of King Louis XV in the Paris square which until then bore his name, was pulled down and destroyed. This was a prelude to the guillotine, guillotining of his successor Louis XVI in the same site, renamed "Place de la Révolution" (at present Place de la Concorde). Later that year, the bodies of many French kings were exhumed from the Basilica of Saint-Denis and dumped in a mass grave.

Some episodes of iconoclasm were carried out spontaneously by crowds of citizens, including the destruction of statues of kings during the insurrection of 10 August 1792 in Paris. Some were directly sanctioned by the Republican government, including the Saint-Denis exhumations. Nonetheless, the Republican government also took steps to preserve historic artworks, notably by founding the Louvre museum to house and display the former royal art collection. This allowed the physical objects and national heritage to be preserved while stripping them of their association with the monarchy. Alexandre Lenoir saved many royal monuments by diverting them to preservation in a museum.

The statue of Napoleon I of France, Napoleon on the column at Place Vendôme, Paris was also the target of iconoclasm several times: destroyed after the Bourbon Restoration in France, Bourbon Restoration, restored by Louis-Philippe of France, Louis-Philippe, destroyed during the Paris Commune and restored by Adolphe Thiers.

Other examples

Other examples of political destruction of images include:
* There have been several cases of removing symbols of past rulers in Malta's history. Many Knights Hospitaller, Hospitaller coats of arms on buildings were defaced during the French occupation of Malta in 1798–1800; a few of these were subsequently replaced by British coats of arms in the early 19th century. Some British symbols were also removed by the government after Malta became a republic in 1974. These include royal cyphers being ground off from post boxes, and British coats of arms such as that on the Main Guard (Valletta), Main Guard building being temporarily obscured (but not destroyed).
* With the entry of the Ottoman Empire to the First World War, the Ottoman Army destroyed the Russian victory monument erected in Yeşilköy, San Stefano (the modern Yeşilköy quarter of Istanbul) to commemorate the Russian victory in the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. The demolition was filmed by former army officer Fuat Uzkınay, producing ''Ayastefanos'taki Rus Abidesinin Yıkılışı''—the oldest known Turkish-made film.
* In the late 18th century, the Brabant Revolutionaries sacked Brussels' Grand-Place, destroying statues of nobility and symbols of Christianity. In the 19th century, the place was renovated and many new statues added. In 1911, a marble commemoration for the Spanish freethinker and educator Francisco Ferrer, executed two years earlier and widely considered a martyr, was erected in the Grand-Place. The statue depicted a nude man holding the Torch of Enlightenment. The Imperial German military, which Belgium in the First World War, occupied Belgium during the First World War, disliked the monument and destroyed it in 1915. It was restored in 1926 by the International Free Thought Movement.
* In 1942 the pro-Nazi Vichy France, Vichy Government of France took down and melted Clothilde Roch's statue of the 16th-century dissident intellectual Michael Servetus, who had been burned at the stake in Geneva at the instigation of John Calvin, Calvin. The Vichy authorities disliked the statue, as it was a celebration of freedom of conscience. In 1960, having found the original molds, the municipality of Annemasse had it recast and returned the statue to its previous place.
* A sculpture of the head of Spanish intellectual Miguel de Unamuno by Victorio Macho was installed in the City Hall of Bilbao, Spain. It was withdrawn in 1936 when Unamuno showed temporary support for the Nationalist (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist side. During the Spanish Civil War, it was thrown into Estuary of Bilbao, the estuary. It was later recovered. In 1984 the head was installed in Plaza Unamuno. In 1999, it was again thrown into the estuary after a political meeting of . It was substituted by a copy in 2000 after the original was located in the water.
* The Battle of Baghdad (2003), Battle of Baghdad and the regime of Saddam Hussein symbolically ended with the Firdos Square statue destruction, a U.S. military-staged event on April 9, 2003 where a prominent statue of Saddam Hussein was pulled down. Subsequently, statues and murals of Saddam Hussein all over Iraq were destroyed by US occupation forces as well as Iraqi citizens.
* In 2016, paintings from the University of Cape Town were burned in student protests as symbols of colonialism.
* In November 2019 Statue of Zlatan, the statue of Swedish footballer Zlatan Ibrahimović was vandalized by Malmö FF supporters after he announced he had become part-owner of Swedish rivals Hammarby Fotboll, Hammarby. White paint was sprayed on it; threats and hateful messages towards Zlatan were written on the statue, and it was burned. In a second attack the nose was sawed off and the statue was sprinkled with chrome paint. On 5 January 2020 it was finally toppled.
* On June 4, 2020, Virginia governor Ralph Northam ordered the Robert E. Lee Monument (Richmond, Virginia), monument to Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia, Richmond to be removed in response to George Floyd protests in Virginia, George Floyd protests. It was removed on September 8, 2021.

In the Soviet Union

During and after the October Revolution, widespread destruction of religious and secular imagery in Russia took place, as well as the destruction of imagery related to House of Romanov, the Imperial family. The Revolution was accompanied by destruction of monuments of tsars, as well as the destruction of Coat of arms of Russia, imperial eagles at various locations throughout Russian Empire, Russia. According to Christopher Wharton:

In front of a Moscow cathedral, crowds cheered as the enormous statue of Tsar Alexander III of Russia, Alexander III was bound with ropes and gradually beaten to the ground. After a considerable amount of time, the statue was decapitated and its remaining parts were broken into rubble.

The Soviet Union actively destroyed religious sites, including Russian Orthodox churches and Jewish cemeteries, in order to discourage religious practice and curb the activities of religious groups.

During the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and during the Revolutions of 1989, protesters often attacked and took down sculptures and images of Joseph Stalin, such as the Stalin Monument (Budapest), Stalin Monument in Budapest.

The fall of Communism in 1989-1991 was also followed by the destruction or removal of statues of Vladimir Lenin and other Communist leaders in the former Soviet Union and in other Eastern Bloc countries. Particularly well-known was the destruction of "Monument to Felix Dzerzhinsky, Moscow, Iron Felix", the statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky outside the KGB's headquarters. Another statue of Dzerzhinsky was destroyed in a Warsaw square that was named after him during communist Poland, communist rule, but which is now called Bank Square, Warsaw, Bank Square.

In the United States

During the American Revolution, the Sons of Liberty pulled down and destroyed the gilding, gilded lead statue of George III of the United Kingdom on Bowling Green (New York City), melting it down to be recast as Musket#Ammunition, ammunition. Similar acts have accompanied the independence of most ex-colonial territories. Sometimes relatively intact monuments are moved to a collected display in a less prominent place, as in India and also Post-communist countries, post-Communist countries.

In August 2017, a statue of a Confederate States of America, Confederate soldier dedicated to "Confederate States Army, the boys who wore the gray" was pulled down from its pedestal in front of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County Durham County Justice Center, Courthouse in North Carolina by protesters. This followed the events at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in response to growing calls to Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials, remove Confederate monuments and memorials across the U.S.

2020 demonstrations

During the George Floyd protests of 2020, demonstrators pulled down dozens of statues which they considered symbols of the Confederate States of America, Confederacy, Slavery in the United States, slavery, Racial segregation in the United States, segregation, or Racism in the United States, racism, including the statue of Williams Carter Wickham in Richmond, Virginia

Further demonstrations in the wake of the George Floyd protests have resulted in the removal of:
* the John Breckinridge Castleman, John Breckenridge Castleman monument in Louisville, Kentucky;
* plaques in Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville, Florida's Hemming Park (renamed in 1899 in honor of Civil War veteran Charles C. Hemming), which were in remembrance of deceased Confederate States Army, Confederate soldiers;
* the monumental obelisk of the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument (Birmingham, Alabama), Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument and a statue of Charles Linn in Linn Park, Birmingham, Alabama;
* a statue of Junípero Serra in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco;
* a statue of Confederate Robert E. Lee, Gen. Robert E. Lee in Montgomery, Alabama;
* the Appomattox (statue), Appomattox statue in Alexandria, Virginia, leaving the monument's base empty but intact.

Multiple statues of early European explorers and founders were also vandalized, including those of Christopher Columbus, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson.
* Christopher Columbus was removed in Virginia, Minnesota, Chicago and beheaded in Boston MA.
* George Washington statue was toppled in Portland, Oregon.

A statue of the African Americans, African-American Abolitionism, abolitionist statesman Frederick Douglass was vandalised in Rochester, New York, by being torn from its base and left close to a nearby river gorge. Donald Trump attributed the act to Anarchism, anarchists, but he did not substantiate his claim nor did he offer a theory on motive. Cornell William Brooks, former president of the NAACP, theorised that this was an act of revenge from white supremacists. Carvin Eison, who led the project that brought the Douglass statues to Rochester, thought it was unlikely that the Douglass statue was toppled by someone who was upset about monuments honoring Confederate figures, and added that "it's only logical that it was some kind of retaliation event in someone’s mind". Police did not find evidence that supported or refuted either claim, and the vandalism case remains unsolved.

See also

* Aniconism
* Censorship by religion
* Iconolatry
* List of destroyed heritage
* Lost artworks
* Natural theology
* Slighting

Notes

References

Further reading

* (On the conceptual background of Byzantine iconoclasm)
*
* —— 2016. ''Broken Idols of the English Reformation''. Cambridge University Press.
*
* Barasch, Moshe. 1992. ''Icon: Studies in the History of an Idea''. New York University Press. .
*
* Besançon, Alain. 2009. ''The Forbidden Image: An Intellectual History of Iconoclasm''. University of Chicago Press. .
* Bevan, Robert. 2006. ''The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at War''. Reaktion Books. .
* Boldrick, Stacy, Leslie Brubaker, and Richard Clay, eds. 2014. ''Striking Images, Iconoclasms Past and Present''. Ashgate. (Scholarly studies of the destruction of images from prehistory to the Taliban.)
* Calisi, Antonio. 2017. ''I Difensori Dell'icona: La Partecipazione Dei Vescovi Dell'Italia Meridionale Al Concilio Di Nicea II'' 787. CreateSpace. .
* Freedberg, David. 1977.
The Structure of Byzantine and European Iconoclasm
" Pp. 165–77 in ''Iconoclasm: Papers Given at the Ninth Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies'', edited by A. Bryer and J. Herrin. University of Birmingham, Centre for Byzantine Studies. .
* —— [1985] 1993.
Iconoclasts and their Motives
" (Second Horst Gerson Memorial Lecture, University of Groningen). ''Public'' 8(Fall).
** Original print: Maarssen: Gary Schwartz. 1985. .
*
*
*
*
*
*
* Arun Shourie, Shourie, Arun, Sita Ram Goel, Harsh Narain, Jay Dubashi, and Ram Swarup. 1990. ''Hindu Temples - What Happened to Them Vol. I, (A Preliminary Survey)''.
*
* Topper, David R. ''Idolatry & Infinity: Of Art, Math & God''. BrownWalker Press, BrownWalker. .
*

Weeraratna, Senaka ' Repression of Buddhism in Sri Lanka by the Portuguese' (1505 -1658)
* Teodoro Studita, Contro gli avversari delle icone, Emanuela Fogliadini (Prefazione), Antonio Calisi (Traduttore), Jaca Book, 2022,

External links

Holy Cross College (UK)

Design as Social Agent at the ICA
by Kerry Skemp, April 5, 2009

Hindu temples destroyed by Muslim rulers in India

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Iconoclasm,
Byzantine Iconoclasm,
Protestant Reformation
Religious persecution
Christian terminology