DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55207#0023
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- Frühchristliche und byzantinische Kunst
THE EMPRESS 15
The marble selected for her face is different in tone from that chosen for
Christ and for Constantine. The complexion of Constantine is rugged and
sanguinary. The visage of Christ seems transfused with supernatural light. In
Zoe’s face the tessellae suggest the enamel which she seems to have used in
life: the cheeks are highly rouged, the shadows of the brows intensified and
the left eye elongated in much the manner of modern make-up; she is made up
doll-like, in her persistent pursuit of youth. Here actually in realistic por-
traiture is the doting, still popular old Empress, described in life by Psellos,
without a single wrinkle in her face in spite of her nearly seventy years.
The Empress wears a crown composed of two jewelled gold bands, widening
upwards and heightened by triangular ornaments all suggesting the gates and
crenellated walls of a city. This crown may be identified as a modiolos [24].
Each band is studded with large rectangular gems in gold setting, alternating
with rows of pearls on transparent violet enamel ground. The three gems in
the lower band appear to be a beryl in the centre and two garnets or carnelians.
In the upper band, the stones seem alternately beryls and garnets. The three
triangles are of gold, each with two violet enamel stripes, a garnet or carnelian
in the centre. Pear-shaped bits of glass of the translucency of emeralds are set
vertically on the side of each triangle.
From the lower edge of the crown on either side hang prependulia. They
are composed of violet enamel on gold with alternating rectangular beryls and
garnets separated by pearls in affective combination. The prependulia end
characteristically with three large pear-shaped pearls visible only on the left.
The ear-ring of the Empress is a circle of small pearls.
In full court attire Zoe appears clad in chiton, divitission, loros, and
shoulder-piece. The chiton is visible under the divitission in the gold collar,
ornamented with red enamel, carnelians and pearls, and under the left sleeve
appears in a richly woven wristlet. The divitission is of reddish-violet silk
interwoven in fine gold thread with arrow- and V-shaped motives. Circular
ornaments woven in a deeper reddish-violet, bordered with gold, studded
with pearls and centred with a square stone like a carnelian on gold ground,
decorate the upper arms. The broad close-fitting shoulder-piece, divided in
three bands, is edged at the top as usual in violet, and is outlined in gold, with
square beryls or cloudy emeralds in gold claw-setting and pearls; the wider
central band is enriched, above, by narrow rectangular beryls, alternating with
pearls on a gold ground, and below by pearls with square beryls and what
appear to be carnelians.
From beneath the shoulder-piece the sumptuous loros hangs down over the
divitission. Heaviest gold tissue forms the centre, with round beryls near the
The marble selected for her face is different in tone from that chosen for
Christ and for Constantine. The complexion of Constantine is rugged and
sanguinary. The visage of Christ seems transfused with supernatural light. In
Zoe’s face the tessellae suggest the enamel which she seems to have used in
life: the cheeks are highly rouged, the shadows of the brows intensified and
the left eye elongated in much the manner of modern make-up; she is made up
doll-like, in her persistent pursuit of youth. Here actually in realistic por-
traiture is the doting, still popular old Empress, described in life by Psellos,
without a single wrinkle in her face in spite of her nearly seventy years.
The Empress wears a crown composed of two jewelled gold bands, widening
upwards and heightened by triangular ornaments all suggesting the gates and
crenellated walls of a city. This crown may be identified as a modiolos [24].
Each band is studded with large rectangular gems in gold setting, alternating
with rows of pearls on transparent violet enamel ground. The three gems in
the lower band appear to be a beryl in the centre and two garnets or carnelians.
In the upper band, the stones seem alternately beryls and garnets. The three
triangles are of gold, each with two violet enamel stripes, a garnet or carnelian
in the centre. Pear-shaped bits of glass of the translucency of emeralds are set
vertically on the side of each triangle.
From the lower edge of the crown on either side hang prependulia. They
are composed of violet enamel on gold with alternating rectangular beryls and
garnets separated by pearls in affective combination. The prependulia end
characteristically with three large pear-shaped pearls visible only on the left.
The ear-ring of the Empress is a circle of small pearls.
In full court attire Zoe appears clad in chiton, divitission, loros, and
shoulder-piece. The chiton is visible under the divitission in the gold collar,
ornamented with red enamel, carnelians and pearls, and under the left sleeve
appears in a richly woven wristlet. The divitission is of reddish-violet silk
interwoven in fine gold thread with arrow- and V-shaped motives. Circular
ornaments woven in a deeper reddish-violet, bordered with gold, studded
with pearls and centred with a square stone like a carnelian on gold ground,
decorate the upper arms. The broad close-fitting shoulder-piece, divided in
three bands, is edged at the top as usual in violet, and is outlined in gold, with
square beryls or cloudy emeralds in gold claw-setting and pearls; the wider
central band is enriched, above, by narrow rectangular beryls, alternating with
pearls on a gold ground, and below by pearls with square beryls and what
appear to be carnelians.
From beneath the shoulder-piece the sumptuous loros hangs down over the
divitission. Heaviest gold tissue forms the centre, with round beryls near the