DOI article:
Mierzejewska, Bożena: Nubian Imagines Potestatis in the Collections of the National Museum in Warsaw
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18949#0024
the court ceremony which accompanied important receptions in the pałace:
“May our almighty and most compassionate God, who has crowned you
through the intercession of His immaculate Mother, grant us with the favour
of celebrating in peace [...] these happy days, for many years to come.”,s The
almost identical composition in the apse seems to be also a royal investiture
although the destroyed upper part of the painting makes it impossible to
determine whether Emmanuel facing the monarch is putting a crown on his
head or just blessing him.
Although authors who wrote on Christian Nubia did not mention any
ceremonies accompanying ascending the throne by subsequent monarchs,
iconography seems to confirm the fact that formal ascension of a new
monarch was accompanied by certain ceremonies dictated by local tradition,
with elements of ceremony emulating the Byzantine imperial coronation.54
Doubtlessly, after the acceptance of Christianity by Nubia the ascension
ceremony was gradually incorporated into the tradition of the church,
acąuired sacral naturę and liturgical decor, not unlike in other mediaeval
monarchies. Outwardly, such ceremoniał coronation could be a manifestation
of Nubia’s total independence and, inwardly, it remained a symbol of the
state’s unity. It seems that the belief in sacral origins of Nubian kings’ power
found expression first in written documents and in introduction of such
Byzantine epithets as pbilochristos and theosteptos to titulature.40 In Nubia
coronation was performed by a bishop, probably during a religious ceremony,
when the new monarch received his regalia - a crown, a sceptre and
probably also a hand cross, which seems to be one of the regalia. Depictions
of eparchs, high officials most likely of royal blood, extant on walls of some
Nubian churches41 testify that eparchs, not having the king’s title but
enjoying on his behalf a considerable power in the country, may also have
attempted to provide liturgical decor for their inauguration ceremonies.
Accepting Michałowskie dating one would have to decide that the
composition from the Bishops’ Chapel emulates the one from the apse,
a hundred years older. However, in view of the fact that depictions of divine
investiture in Christian art appeared only during the Macedonian dynasty,
after 879/80, dating the apse scene for the reign of Georgios I seems too
Constantin VII Porphyrogenete, op. cit., 2:92.
39 Mention of proclamation of Georgios I as the futurę monarch in Severus Ibn Al-Muqaffa, cf.:
Vantini, op. cit., p. 194.
40 The title of philochristos appears in an inscription from 559-574 mentioning king Tokiltoeton,
cf.: S. Donadoni, “Un epigrafe greco-nubiana”, La Parola del Passato, 69, 1959, pp. 463-465.
In inscriptions from Faras from 707 and Tafah from 710 king Mercurios has a title of
philochristos and, for the first time, of theosteptos, crowned by God, cf.: S. Jakobielski,
Faras III, A History of the Bishopric of Pachoras on the Basis of Coptic Inscriptions, Warsaw
1972, pp. 35-47 and J. Maspero, “Le Roi Mercure a Tafah”, Annales du Sernice des Antiąuites
d’Egypte, 10, 1910, pp. 17-20.
41 Among others in Faras, inv. no. 234001 (the figurę on king’s left), 234033 (Christ with
eparch), 234003 (a king or eparch with a group of officials), 234010 (eparch). Cf. Rostkowska,
“Remarąues...”, op. cit.
22
“May our almighty and most compassionate God, who has crowned you
through the intercession of His immaculate Mother, grant us with the favour
of celebrating in peace [...] these happy days, for many years to come.”,s The
almost identical composition in the apse seems to be also a royal investiture
although the destroyed upper part of the painting makes it impossible to
determine whether Emmanuel facing the monarch is putting a crown on his
head or just blessing him.
Although authors who wrote on Christian Nubia did not mention any
ceremonies accompanying ascending the throne by subsequent monarchs,
iconography seems to confirm the fact that formal ascension of a new
monarch was accompanied by certain ceremonies dictated by local tradition,
with elements of ceremony emulating the Byzantine imperial coronation.54
Doubtlessly, after the acceptance of Christianity by Nubia the ascension
ceremony was gradually incorporated into the tradition of the church,
acąuired sacral naturę and liturgical decor, not unlike in other mediaeval
monarchies. Outwardly, such ceremoniał coronation could be a manifestation
of Nubia’s total independence and, inwardly, it remained a symbol of the
state’s unity. It seems that the belief in sacral origins of Nubian kings’ power
found expression first in written documents and in introduction of such
Byzantine epithets as pbilochristos and theosteptos to titulature.40 In Nubia
coronation was performed by a bishop, probably during a religious ceremony,
when the new monarch received his regalia - a crown, a sceptre and
probably also a hand cross, which seems to be one of the regalia. Depictions
of eparchs, high officials most likely of royal blood, extant on walls of some
Nubian churches41 testify that eparchs, not having the king’s title but
enjoying on his behalf a considerable power in the country, may also have
attempted to provide liturgical decor for their inauguration ceremonies.
Accepting Michałowskie dating one would have to decide that the
composition from the Bishops’ Chapel emulates the one from the apse,
a hundred years older. However, in view of the fact that depictions of divine
investiture in Christian art appeared only during the Macedonian dynasty,
after 879/80, dating the apse scene for the reign of Georgios I seems too
Constantin VII Porphyrogenete, op. cit., 2:92.
39 Mention of proclamation of Georgios I as the futurę monarch in Severus Ibn Al-Muqaffa, cf.:
Vantini, op. cit., p. 194.
40 The title of philochristos appears in an inscription from 559-574 mentioning king Tokiltoeton,
cf.: S. Donadoni, “Un epigrafe greco-nubiana”, La Parola del Passato, 69, 1959, pp. 463-465.
In inscriptions from Faras from 707 and Tafah from 710 king Mercurios has a title of
philochristos and, for the first time, of theosteptos, crowned by God, cf.: S. Jakobielski,
Faras III, A History of the Bishopric of Pachoras on the Basis of Coptic Inscriptions, Warsaw
1972, pp. 35-47 and J. Maspero, “Le Roi Mercure a Tafah”, Annales du Sernice des Antiąuites
d’Egypte, 10, 1910, pp. 17-20.
41 Among others in Faras, inv. no. 234001 (the figurę on king’s left), 234033 (Christ with
eparch), 234003 (a king or eparch with a group of officials), 234010 (eparch). Cf. Rostkowska,
“Remarąues...”, op. cit.
22