Trinity and Transformation at the Turn of the Millennium

The decades to either side of the millennium saw remarkable transformations in Trinitarian iconography and doctrine. The 'Great Schism' between the Eastern and Western churches, culminating in the mutual excommunications of Cardinal Humbert and Patriarch Michael Cerularius in 1054, was fuelled by increasing differences between Eastern and Western uses of the 'filioque' clause and its implications for understanding the relationship between God the Father and God the Son – and thus the nature of the Trinity. Artists working amidst these tensions would likely have known the relatively controversial nature of their subject matter, yet Trinitarian images produced in Europe in this period are among the most inventive and unusual of the Middle Ages. Engaging specifically with images of the Trinity made in the Western tradition, this article examines how artists working around the year 1000 found new ways to express the three-in-one nature of God and uphold the principles of the 'filioque'.