Notes About the Commemoration of the Powerful Menin the Medieval Art in Macedonia

Abstract

Rulers’ portraits as symbols of the institution of monarchy were used on coins, legal acts and seals, as a guarantee of authenticity and legal effectiveness. They are usually the highest category of propaganda images. Each civilization has the praxis of representing to a certain extent real or “beatified” image or portrait of the emperor. By adding various symbols of power, like crowns, caps, beard, throne, supendium, chariot, and number of the animals driving it, we are directly observing the image of the most powerful representatives of people, nations, states, empires, era, usually blessed by or alike god(s). Roman emperors preferred to be represented in sculpture, and the copy of the ruling emperor was placed in every city of the Empire. It was roman art and sculpture where actually the portrait was invented in the 2nd century B.C. Sometimes Emperor’s portrait in Byzantium had the status of replacing the real presence of the sovereign. The early portraits of byzantine emperors in monumental art are preserved in St. Vitale in Ravena, where the emperor Justinian I and his wife with ecclesiastical and court dignitaries attend the liturgy.[2], from 1034–1042; the portrait of John II Komnenos and the empress Irene from the beginning of the 12th C.[4] Negr?u says in churches, the images of the rulers expressed the relation of monarchs with God, who gave them the power of monarchy in exchange to undertake the defense of Christian law. The images are addressed to the masses with the purpose to present monarchs as generous donors, as well as ubiquitous authorities.”[6]