Anthologia Marciana/Marcianus Graecus 524
Epigram L72 [Sp 73], On the pictures of the emperors and Lord Alexios

Name of text:

Anthologia Marciana/Marcianus Graecus 524
Epigram L72 [Sp 73], On the pictures of the emperors and Lord Alexios
Author of text: Unknown
Date of text: September 1169 and March 1171, manuscript 13th century
Date of person in text:
Name of structure in text:
Type of structure in text: Church
Date of structure in text Unknown
Century of structure 1:
Century of structure 2:
Country in text: Unknown
Region in text:
City in text:
Specific place of mosaic in text:

Probably accompanied wall mosaics depicting the imperial family on the façade of a church. 
Description of mosaic in text:

'Both the glittering of the colours and of the gold and the glistening splendour of the variegated stones show the all-golden church to be radiant.  But the beauty [of the image] is not so much inside as outside, namely, in the images depicted there.'
The imagery included portraits of the emperors Alexios I, John II and Manuel I Komnenos, although it is not clear as to how they were depicted.  The patron was seen to bow before the emperors. 
Mosaic date in text: 12 AD
Tesserae silver mentioned in text? No
Tesserae gold mentioned in text? No
Colour descriptions in text:
Bibliography:

Full translation in Spingou, Foteini, ‘Text and Image at the Court of Manual Komnenos: Epigrams on works of art in Marcianus Graecus 524’, MPhil Thesis, Trinity Term 2010, University of Oxford, pp. 62-67 [unpublished]


 Notes and additional info in Spingou, Foteini, Words and artworks in the twelfth century and beyond: the thirteenth-century manuscript Marcianus Graecus 524 and the twelfth-century dedicatory epigrams on works of art, DPhil Thesis, Michaelmas Term 2012, University of Oxford.[unpublished]
URLs:
Comments: Mosaics commissioned by the protosebastos [first-sebastos]  protovestiarios [Empire’s most senior financial official] John Komnenos, the son of Andronikos Komnenos and Eirene.

Previous Next