DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55207#0022
14 THE IMPERIAL PORTRAITS OF THE SOUTH GALLERY
descends from the neck, appears under the right arm, passes aslant across the
body, is caught up over the left arm, revealing its soft, grey-green lining and
falls to a point a little above the knee. Throughout, the loros is of the same
red-violet and has, like the shoulder-piece, similar lavish ornamentations in
even larger stones.
Vestments are worked in glass, except that stone is used for pearls and the
centre of red gems. Mosaic representations of precious and semi-precious
stones and pastes may admit of many differences in attribution, for in Byzan-
tine art jewels are never placed in identification but rather in their affective
force to be worn mingled with all else in shapely response to the order of
ceremony. Use of mother-of-pearl is a provincial vulgarity and does not
appear anywhere in the mosaics of Haghia Sophia.
The purse held by the Emperor is reproduced in two tones, like tawny raw
silk, and tied round the neck with a red cord sealed with a molybdoboulon or
lead seal. His hands seem to feel the weight of the gold.
Above the head of the Emperor are four lines:
kconctantTnoc CN X(3 (0 ©CO
’AYTOKPATCOP IUCTOC
BACIAEYC PCOMAl'cON-
O MONOMAX
KcovcrTavTivos ev X(picn-)co tw <9(e)c5 auTOKpdrroop tticttos pacriAeus ‘Pooiiaioov. d
Movonax(o$). Constantine, in Christ the God, Autocrat, faithful King of the Romans,
Monomachos.
THE EMPRESS
On the left of Christ, turning slightly towards Him, stands the Empress
Zoe. Her head, as is true of all the other heads in this panel, was not in the
original work but is a substitution, of later date, in place of an earlier head
of the same person. The Empress is shorter than the Emperor; the top of
her crown is barely higher than the left shoulder of Christ. She holds a
scroll of parchment enumerating imperial donations to the Great Church [20];
an inscription in red, apparently written in the cinnabar used for the imperial
signature, runs across the document [21].
Zoe has a plump, roseate face, a slightly heavy nose, full brow, and large
yellow-grey eyes, recalling some of the features of her Macedonian fore-
bears [22]. Her rosebud painted mouth is small, with delicate lips, and the
fleshy chin is accented with a semi-circular cleft. Her hair, seen below the
crown, is fair [23].
descends from the neck, appears under the right arm, passes aslant across the
body, is caught up over the left arm, revealing its soft, grey-green lining and
falls to a point a little above the knee. Throughout, the loros is of the same
red-violet and has, like the shoulder-piece, similar lavish ornamentations in
even larger stones.
Vestments are worked in glass, except that stone is used for pearls and the
centre of red gems. Mosaic representations of precious and semi-precious
stones and pastes may admit of many differences in attribution, for in Byzan-
tine art jewels are never placed in identification but rather in their affective
force to be worn mingled with all else in shapely response to the order of
ceremony. Use of mother-of-pearl is a provincial vulgarity and does not
appear anywhere in the mosaics of Haghia Sophia.
The purse held by the Emperor is reproduced in two tones, like tawny raw
silk, and tied round the neck with a red cord sealed with a molybdoboulon or
lead seal. His hands seem to feel the weight of the gold.
Above the head of the Emperor are four lines:
kconctantTnoc CN X(3 (0 ©CO
’AYTOKPATCOP IUCTOC
BACIAEYC PCOMAl'cON-
O MONOMAX
KcovcrTavTivos ev X(picn-)co tw <9(e)c5 auTOKpdrroop tticttos pacriAeus ‘Pooiiaioov. d
Movonax(o$). Constantine, in Christ the God, Autocrat, faithful King of the Romans,
Monomachos.
THE EMPRESS
On the left of Christ, turning slightly towards Him, stands the Empress
Zoe. Her head, as is true of all the other heads in this panel, was not in the
original work but is a substitution, of later date, in place of an earlier head
of the same person. The Empress is shorter than the Emperor; the top of
her crown is barely higher than the left shoulder of Christ. She holds a
scroll of parchment enumerating imperial donations to the Great Church [20];
an inscription in red, apparently written in the cinnabar used for the imperial
signature, runs across the document [21].
Zoe has a plump, roseate face, a slightly heavy nose, full brow, and large
yellow-grey eyes, recalling some of the features of her Macedonian fore-
bears [22]. Her rosebud painted mouth is small, with delicate lips, and the
fleshy chin is accented with a semi-circular cleft. Her hair, seen below the
crown, is fair [23].