Empereur, piété et rémission des péchés dans deux Ekphraseis byzantines. Image et rhétorique

Abstract

The Emperor, His Piety And Remission Of Sins In Two Byzantine Ekphraseis.

Art And Eloquence

Supplicating depictions of Byzantine emperors, as moments of private piety highlighting the latter’s mortal side before God have not survived in monumental art. However, it is known from two Ekphraseis that such artworks actually existed. The first citation referring to such as case can be found in four epigrams by John Mauropous who mentions a sepulchral painting, probably of Constantine Monomachus, where the emperor was shown supplicating before a Deesis. The second reference is pertinent to a description of the Last Judgement by Nicholaos Kallikles where the emperor Alexius Komnenus was also included among the standing effigies before the doors of the Paradise. The analysis explores the circumstances under which these depictions could have been appropriated and the artistic context in which they belonged. The use of surviving depictions of supplicants in manuscripts as comparative material renders both the ideological frame and the artistic measure for such representations.