Iconic Subjects

This article discusses the formational qualities of Byzantine church decoration, especially icons. It proposes that the iconographic programs of Byzantine churches had a profound effect on the viewers by offering them models for faithfulness and virtue and facilitating their transformation into ideal Christian subjects. My intention is to show that icons in the church do not simply interact with the viewers, but also form and transform them. I explore how iconic subjects worked in Byzantine churches in light of Ivan Drpić’s important insight about the Byzantine self as fundamentally relational and as ‘a replicable likeness’. I wish to show how mosaics and frescoes in Byzantine churches could provoke transformational experiences for their viewers by inviting identification with models of faithfulness and virtue.