"Bearded and long-haired kings. Representations of rulership on seals and coins", in Nadine Viermann und Johannes Wienand (Hg.), Reading the Late Roman Monarchy, Studies in Ancient Monarchies, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner (fortcoming). (original) (raw)
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Journal of Mediterranean Knowledge, 2016
This paper aims to discuss the influence of interdependently effective political discourses and cultural differences in early modern Mediterranean regarding the motives for official state portraiture. Therefore, the paper will focus on the portraits of monarchs, foremost the depictions of Philip IV of Spain by the court painter Velazquez and works of Titian under the patronage of Charles V and Philip II in order to analyse, how the conservative portraiture culture was established and maintained during the so-called Siglo de Oro . In contrast to the western Mediterranean, the intercultural portraiture style of the Ottoman Emperor Mehmed II will be given to emphasize the significant role of political inclinations of monarchs on their portraits. A multi-layered approach lies therefore at the basis of full socio-political and cultural comprehension of the paintings to overcome a simple analysis and to contextualize the work of art within both macro and micro historical perspective.
Metamorphoses of the early medieval signum of a ruler in the Carolingian world
Early Medieval Europe, 2006
This article uses the approach of diplomatic semiotics to explore early medieval signs of authority in charters and on coins, especially the monogram and the sign of the cross used as an individual ‘signature’. Coins and charters used these signs communicating royal or imperial authority differently, addressing diverse regional and social audiences. From the fifth through the ninth centuries, the early medieval signum of a ruler gradually transformed from the individualizing sign of a particular monarch, designed to differentiate him symbolically from other rulers, to the generalizing sign of the king by the grace of God, which as a visual attribute of authority could be shared by several rulers. This transformation signified the inauguration of a new ‘medieval’ tradition in the communication of authority in late Carolingian times.
The aim of this study is to analyze the coronation ceremonies carried out in the Crown of Aragon throughout the Middle Ages. Although the pope granted most Western monarchies the right to hold these ceremonies in their own kingdoms in 1204, our study will address the mechanisms used to appoint kings both before and after the consolidation of these ceremonies, mechanisms which reflected the power struggles between the parties involved, that is, the prince and the Church. We will examine the elements that remained constant throughout this period but we will also pay particular attention to the alterations that were made and how these had important consequences that went beyond politics and entered religious terrain. Among the changes were the kings' e↵orts to participate in priestly orders, the promotion and consolidation of new liturgy with content intended to legitimize the kings, and the use of new iconographies with sacred references. As will be seen, these are only a small example of the mechanisms used by the sovereigns of the Crown of Aragon to re-emphasize their links with God, which had been weakened by the transformations to the anointing and coronation ceremonials and the resulting tensions with Rome, particularly during the times of Peter IV (1336-1387).
Image and Ornament in the Early Medieval West (Cambridge University Press, 2023)
Friedrich, Matthias. Image and Ornament in the Early Medieval West: New Perspectives on Post-Roman Art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009207768 Scholarship often treats the post-Roman art produced in central and north-western Europe as representative of the pagan identities of the new 'Germanic' rulers of the early medieval world. In this book, Matthias Friedrich offers a critical reevaluation of the ethnic and religious categories of art that still inform our understanding of early medieval art and archaeology. He scrutinises early medieval visual culture by combining archaeological approaches with art historical methods based on contemporary theory. Friedrich examines the transformation of Roman imperial images, together with the contemporary, highly ornamented material culture that is epitomized by 'animal art.' Through a rigorous analysis of a range of objects, he demonstrates how these pathways produced an aesthetic that promoted variety (varietas), a cross-cultural concept that bridged the various ethnic and religious identities of post-Roman Europe and the Mediterranean worlds.
The reign of the king of the Crown of Aragón, Jaime II, is one of the most politically and artistically interesting in the medieval Iberian Peninsula. Scholars in recent years have highlighted the way he used art as a tool of power, but there still remains a lot to be clarified, in particular the profound meaning of some of his commissions and their relevance beyond his own generation, the relevance of his kingship in Sicily to his visual culture before becoming king of Aragon, the reasons why there was a real aesthetic change during his kingship, the role of queens -if there were any- in this change, or the important relations between politic events and his promotion of the arts. Jaime II constructed his outward appearance and communicated it by means of a variety of rituals, object-types and media, as some of his predecessors did, and he used art to make visible a concise image of power and authority. As will explain, he was not merely the result of an existing trend: Jaime II marked a milestone in the use of art for propaganda purposes and, as history states, he was the rightful inspirer of some of his successors’ commissions, among others Pedro IV the Ceremonious (1337-1386). Roughly speaking, there are just under 70 effigies: 34 from illuminated manuscripts, 3 sculptures, 14 seal variants; and 15 different typologies of coin. Of course, the effigies belonging to seals and coins can be reduced in number: only 10 seals present any novelties, and just 2 coins are attractive from an iconographic point of view. However, this reduced number of pieces is still far from dissapointing: there are more than enough to analyse how he wanted to be portrayed in medieval society, in particular through those objects that had a high legal value and that must be understood as acting as a surrogate for the king’s physical presence. The same happens with sculpture: we have very few effigies, but they constitute a clear manifestation of power with a deep meaning that extended far beyond his own lifetime. Those depictions are directly associated with the king’s patronage, into contrast to most of the representations that we find of him in manuscripts, so it is interesting to study why this is and for what ends and uses we have his portrait -in a broad sense of the term- in their folios. To carry out this study, I will leave to one side the large bibliography published about the king, and will instead focus on other written sources such as documents issued by the king, the royal chancellery and chronicles, including three of The Four Great Chronicles. All these references and others such as the Descendentia dominorum regum Siciliae can be used to discuss the image of the king and in what forms, where, when and for what reasons his image was used by himself or by other institutions in the Medieval Crown of Aragon.
Matter(s) of State. Heraldic Display and Discourse in the Early Modern Monarchy (c. 1480-1650)
2018
Heraldic images pervaded early modern politics. In particular, the king’s bearings embodied sovereignty and advanced dynastic claims. They became the stuff of legends, as well as the cause of fierce disputes. But when did heraldic adaptation occur? Why was a disrespectful treatment damaging to the political fabric? By comparing armorial appropriation in the French and Spanish monarchies, Steven Thiry challenges the dominant view of princely image control. Eagles, lilies and lions not only visualized political virtues and vices. Their visual and material dimension imbued them with an agency of their own. Matter(s) of State offers a new insight into the symbolic mindset of the political process. Mystical exaltation, subversive adaptation, and even violent »heraldic« iconoclasm appear as significant means of debating and even questioning rule.
Bearded Emperors: A Symbol of Roman Cosmopolitanism
Beginning with Hadrian and continuing through the Antonines, emperors began to portray themselves with elaborately carved beards, where before emperors had always been clean-shaven. Traditionally, beards were associated with the Greeks, especially Greek orators and philosophers. However, the beards worn by Hadrian and the Antonines were an entirely Roman phenomenon which reflected artistic advancements and social changes, especially the growth of a new international elite in the second century Roman world. These ‘dapper beards’ were symbolic of the wearer’s intellectualism and cosmopolitanism.
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