What examples are there of art being banned?

Question

Be it music, painting, performance etc etc

Answer 1

There are loads of examples!

There are examples of pagan art being destroyed by Christians, which is why many surviving statues from antiquity are missing their heads!

Byzantine iconoclasm of the eighth and ninth centuries- art depicting religious figures was destroyed (iconoclasm literally means "a smashing of images"). The iconocphiles were the opposing party and eventually won the debate in AD843 under the Empress Theodora. The debate centred around Christian dogma about the divinity of Christ and the veneration of icons. (I'm doing my dissertation on this so email me for more details if you want).

There was also Islamic Iconoclasm, since Islamic art cannot depict the human form, for example at the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul (which was a Church then after the Ottomans took over it became a mosque so they painted over all of the icons which decorated it).

See also the reformation in England where, again, religious art was banned/destroyed and under Cromwell singing, dancing and performance were banned.

Also think about modern examples. Think about banned texts of the 1950's like Peyton Place (which was a novel considered to be scandalous) and even the Buddhist art destroyed in Afghanistan by the Taliban.

The banning of art usually comes about because of changing religious, social or political influences.

Answer 2

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