Since the Byzantine iconoclasm and the iconoclasm of the Reformation, images have not been contemplated with such intensity as in recent decades. In addition to archaeology and art history, numerous other disciplines have become deeply engaged with questions surrounding images. In light of this, one of the most significant art historians of our time explores why the concepts of meaning and validity, as well as the power and powerlessness of images, have become such persistently pursued topics today. While images, as human-created artifacts, do not possess an autonomous life, they repeatedly develop a presence that allows them to be more than just dead matter. In this regard, Bredekamp formulates a theory of the image act as a counterpart to the theory of speech acts.