Iconomachy

DEFINITION

A war against images (or icons); hostility or opposition to images, especially to use of images in religious worship. An iconomach is a person who is hostile to images, as are some iconoclasts.(pr. I:-kə-NAH-mə-kee and I:-KAH-nə-MAK)Quote: "We are similar to God only in our souls, and no image can represent him. That is why people who try to represent the essence of God are madmen. For even their souls of little worth cannot be represented." Jean Calvin (1509-1564), French-born Swiss theologian of the Reformation, quoted in Sergiusz Michalski, The Reformation and the Visual Arts, London: Routledge, 1993, p. 62.Also see aniconic, censor, degenerate, destroy, fascist aesthetic, First Amendment rights, iconoclast, iconology, iconophobia, iconophobiac, iconophobic, Islamic art, sacrilege, transgressive art, ugly, vandal, vandalism, and xenophobia.