DOI Artikel:
Łaptaś, Magdalena: A sphere, an orb or a disc?: the object held by the archangels in the Faras Cathedral wall paintings
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18946#0028
1. Gold solidus
of Gratian, reverse,
Gration and
Valentinian II,
Mint of Trier,
375-3/8 A. D„
Warsaw,
Muzeum Narodowe
(Phot. Kazimierz Balakier,
Hanna Kruszewska)
in its left hand10 [Fig. 3], An archangel holding a sphere often accompanies
images of emperors from later periods, as in the case of the sculpted figure on
the back of the ivory sceptre top of Leo VI. We see here the Virgin Mary placing
a crown on the head of the emperor. Accompanying her is the Archangel
Gabriel dressed, like the emperor, in a loros. Again like the emperor, Gabriel
is holding a sceptre in his right hand and a sphere in his left, somewhat larger
than the emperor’s and devoid of the image of the cross.11 * In his reflections
Schramm thus traces the origins of this object back to caesarian iconography.
In an article on the subject of the Archangel Michael in Coptic art, Ole
Skjerbaek Madsen proposes a different interpretation of this circular object.
As the title of the article suggests, the author links the function of the object
10 Cf. P D. Whitting, Monnaies byzantines, Fribourg 1973, pp. 75-76.
11 Ibid., p. 25; cf. also K. Corrigan, “The Ivory Scepter of Leo VI: A Statement of Post-Iconoclastic
Imperial Ideology”, The Art Bulletin, LX, 3, 1978, (408-416), p. 409.
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of Gratian, reverse,
Gration and
Valentinian II,
Mint of Trier,
375-3/8 A. D„
Warsaw,
Muzeum Narodowe
(Phot. Kazimierz Balakier,
Hanna Kruszewska)
in its left hand10 [Fig. 3], An archangel holding a sphere often accompanies
images of emperors from later periods, as in the case of the sculpted figure on
the back of the ivory sceptre top of Leo VI. We see here the Virgin Mary placing
a crown on the head of the emperor. Accompanying her is the Archangel
Gabriel dressed, like the emperor, in a loros. Again like the emperor, Gabriel
is holding a sceptre in his right hand and a sphere in his left, somewhat larger
than the emperor’s and devoid of the image of the cross.11 * In his reflections
Schramm thus traces the origins of this object back to caesarian iconography.
In an article on the subject of the Archangel Michael in Coptic art, Ole
Skjerbaek Madsen proposes a different interpretation of this circular object.
As the title of the article suggests, the author links the function of the object
10 Cf. P D. Whitting, Monnaies byzantines, Fribourg 1973, pp. 75-76.
11 Ibid., p. 25; cf. also K. Corrigan, “The Ivory Scepter of Leo VI: A Statement of Post-Iconoclastic
Imperial Ideology”, The Art Bulletin, LX, 3, 1978, (408-416), p. 409.
26