Aniconism

Aniconism is the cultural absence of artistic representations (icons) of the natural and supernatural worlds, or it is the absence of representations of certain figures in religions. The prohibition of material representations may only extend to a specific supreme deity, or it can encompass an entire pantheon, it can also include depictions of a prophet, saints, or sages, or even depictions of living beings and anything in existence generally. It is generally codified by religious traditions and as such, it becomes a taboo. When it is enforced by the physical destruction of images, aniconism becomes iconoclasm.

Aniconism has historical phases in both Buddhism and Christianity, though these movements have been largely rejected as Buddha in art, life of Buddha in art, Buddhas and bodhisattvas in art, God the Father in Western art, Holy Spirit in Christian art, the depiction of Jesus, The Trinity in art, and Manus Dei are common. By contrast Islam has predominantly been aniconistic throughout their histories, including representations of major figures such as Muhammad. The view of aniconism in Judaism has been challenged, with a number of medieval Ashkenazi illuminated manuscripts collected by David Kaufmann. The earliest phases of ancient Greek religion were rich in aniconic representation, even though Greek mythology is heavily anthropomorphic.

The word "aniconism" is derived from Greek εικων 'image' with the negative prefix an- (Greek privative alpha) and the suffix -ism (Greek -ισμος). Iconoclasm is the active destruction of images for religious or cultural reasons.