DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55207#0040
30
THE IMPERIAL PORTRAITS OF THE SOUTH GALLERY
ICONOGRAPHY
The iconographical significance of both the Zoe and John Panels is identical.
Each represents an ‘imperial offering’ [80], in composition similar to that of
the panel of the South-West Vestibule which has been discussed in a preceding
Report. Only instead of the model of the City and of the Church, presented
by the Founder of the City and the Builder of the Church, here the figures
hold the purse and the scroll. Into the John Panel was brought the figure of
young Alexios in a revival of an ancient custom for an emperor to portray
himself with his heir apparent [81].
The symbolism of such a picture is revealed by an epigram of Theodore
Prodromos, referring to a painting in which John II Comnenos is represented.
In the verses the emperor worships Christ, the God, and brings to Him ‘A
tribute of gold and silver’, such as his subjects render to himself. The offering
is made in thanksgiving and in the hope of new favours to come [82]. These
successive offerings spoken of by the poet give us a Byzantine conception of
the Christian World in which individual life was of small moment compared
with the unified effort of society.
A panegyrist of the twelfth century, Eustathios of Thessaloniki, paraphrasing
a verse from the Psalms (xlvi. 5), tells us that the greatness of the emperors
is evident from the fact that God is in the midst of them as their guide and
prototype [83]. Imperial portraits like these in Haghia Sophia, in which Christ
or the Mother of God is the central figure, present pictorially this idea [84].
The image of Christ on the Zoe Panel is characteristic of the art at the end
of the eleventh century and throughout the twelfth. A similar treatment of
details is found in many monuments of this period—the closed book [85], the
throne without back [86], the rounded footstool [87]. The figure is sharply
drawn, the scrutiny of the oblique gaze is accented by the uplifted eyebrow.
Although some of these traits already appear in the ninth century in a miniature
of Cosmas Indicopleustes in the Vatican [88], this image of Christ is in definite
contrast to the more solemn type with the calm, benignant gaze ‘of the large
eyes that see all things from above’ [89], fostered, until this moment, in Christian
art [90]. Representations closely related to that of the Zoe Panel begin to
appear only from the end of the eleventh century, and during the twelfth
century, at Torcello; in St. Mark’s on the soffit of an arch leading from the
southern apse to the sanctuary; at Mount Athos; in the Deesis of the tympanum
at Vatopedi, and more generally in Sicily in the dome of the Martorana and
at Monreale in the scene of the coronation of King William.
A survival of this type looms unexpectedly much later on the Russian icons
THE IMPERIAL PORTRAITS OF THE SOUTH GALLERY
ICONOGRAPHY
The iconographical significance of both the Zoe and John Panels is identical.
Each represents an ‘imperial offering’ [80], in composition similar to that of
the panel of the South-West Vestibule which has been discussed in a preceding
Report. Only instead of the model of the City and of the Church, presented
by the Founder of the City and the Builder of the Church, here the figures
hold the purse and the scroll. Into the John Panel was brought the figure of
young Alexios in a revival of an ancient custom for an emperor to portray
himself with his heir apparent [81].
The symbolism of such a picture is revealed by an epigram of Theodore
Prodromos, referring to a painting in which John II Comnenos is represented.
In the verses the emperor worships Christ, the God, and brings to Him ‘A
tribute of gold and silver’, such as his subjects render to himself. The offering
is made in thanksgiving and in the hope of new favours to come [82]. These
successive offerings spoken of by the poet give us a Byzantine conception of
the Christian World in which individual life was of small moment compared
with the unified effort of society.
A panegyrist of the twelfth century, Eustathios of Thessaloniki, paraphrasing
a verse from the Psalms (xlvi. 5), tells us that the greatness of the emperors
is evident from the fact that God is in the midst of them as their guide and
prototype [83]. Imperial portraits like these in Haghia Sophia, in which Christ
or the Mother of God is the central figure, present pictorially this idea [84].
The image of Christ on the Zoe Panel is characteristic of the art at the end
of the eleventh century and throughout the twelfth. A similar treatment of
details is found in many monuments of this period—the closed book [85], the
throne without back [86], the rounded footstool [87]. The figure is sharply
drawn, the scrutiny of the oblique gaze is accented by the uplifted eyebrow.
Although some of these traits already appear in the ninth century in a miniature
of Cosmas Indicopleustes in the Vatican [88], this image of Christ is in definite
contrast to the more solemn type with the calm, benignant gaze ‘of the large
eyes that see all things from above’ [89], fostered, until this moment, in Christian
art [90]. Representations closely related to that of the Zoe Panel begin to
appear only from the end of the eleventh century, and during the twelfth
century, at Torcello; in St. Mark’s on the soffit of an arch leading from the
southern apse to the sanctuary; at Mount Athos; in the Deesis of the tympanum
at Vatopedi, and more generally in Sicily in the dome of the Martorana and
at Monreale in the scene of the coronation of King William.
A survival of this type looms unexpectedly much later on the Russian icons