videos + essays
![The Gwoździec synagogue: the lost art of painted wooden synagogues](https://smarthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Museum_of_the_History_of_Polish_Jews_in_Warsaw_Main_exhibition_Gwozdziec_synagogue-570x350.jpg)
The Gwoździec synagogue: the lost art of painted wooden synagogues
A glimpse of the lost art of painted wooden synagogues popularized among Eastern European Jewish communities in the 17th and 18th centuries
![Byzantine Iconoclasm and the Triumph of Orthodoxy](https://smarthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Eirene-grid-copy-570x350.jpg)
Byzantine Iconoclasm and the Triumph of Orthodoxy
Learn why the Byzantines argued about images for over a century.
![Submerged, burned, and scattered: celebrating the destruction of objects in South Asia](https://smarthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Randoli-thumb-570x350.jpg)
Submerged, burned, and scattered: celebrating the destruction of objects in South Asia
Not all tangible cultural heritage is in need of preservation, and sometimes a community requires, even celebrates, the destruction of cultural objects.
![Making and Mutilating Manuscripts of the <em>Shahnama</em>](https://smarthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/shahnama-essay-grid-570x350.jpg)
Making and Mutilating Manuscripts of the Shahnama
Manuscripts have complex lives—learn about the mutilation, dispersal, and framing, of two important Iranian manuscripts
![Folio from a <em>Shahnama</em>, The Bier of Iskandar (Alexander the Great)](https://smarthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Thumbnail-Bier-Alexander-570x350.jpg)
Folio from a Shahnama, The Bier of Iskandar (Alexander the Great)
Alexander, the Mongols, and the great epic of Iran.
![<em>The Court of Gayumars</em>](https://smarthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/courtcentersm-570x350.jpg)
The Court of Gayumars
Producing this lush miniature involved many Persian artists—and likely some familiarity with Chinese sources.
![Destruction as Preservation: Ai Weiwei’s <em>Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn</em>](https://smarthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Grid-570x350.jpg)
Destruction as Preservation: Ai Weiwei’s Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn
How can the destruction of an artifact also be an act of preservation?
![Rewriting history: <em>damnatio memoriae</em> in ancient Rome](https://smarthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Berlin-tondo-detail-570x350.jpg)
Rewriting history: damnatio memoriae in ancient Rome
There are many examples of damnatio memoriae throughout the history of the Roman Republic and Empire.
![Erasing Art: Rauschenberg’s <em>Erased de Kooning drawing</em>](https://smarthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/ErasedDeKooningGrid-570x350.jpg)
Erasing Art: Rauschenberg’s Erased de Kooning drawing
Metaphorically therefore, it could be argued that Rauschenberg was erasing not just a drawing, but this very idea of artistic, masculine authorship.
![Iconoclasm in the Netherlands in the 16th century](https://smarthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/BavoWhole-570x350.jpg)
Iconoclasm in the Netherlands in the 16th century
Controversy over the nature of religious images was not new in the sixteenth century.
![“Creative iconoclasm”: a tale of two monasteries](https://smarthistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/spanish--570x350.jpg)
“Creative iconoclasm”: a tale of two monasteries
Two medieval Spanish monasteries make their way to the United States, and survive to be reconstructed — barely.