Masarykova univerzita Filozofická fakulta Seminář dějin umění Bc. Teodora Georgievová “Byzantine” Crowns: between East, West and the Ritual Diplomová práce Vedoucí práce: Doc. Ivan Foletti, M.A. 2019 Prehlasujem, že som diplomovú prácu vypracovala samostatne s využitím uvedených prameňov a literatúry. Podpis autora práce First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor doc. Ivan Foletti for the time he spent proofreading this thesis, for his valuable advice and comments. Without his help, I would not be able to spend a semester at the University of Padova and use its libraries, which played a key role in my research. I also thank Valentina Cantone, who kindly took me in during my stay and allowed me to consult with her. I’m grateful to the head of the Department of Art History Radka Nokkala Miltová for the opportunity to extend the deadline and finish the thesis with less stress. My gratitude also goes to friends and colleagues for inspiring discussions, encouragement and unavailable study materials. Last but not least, I must thank my parents, sister and Jakub for their patience and psychological support. Without them it would not be possible to complete this work. Table of Contents: Introduction 6 What are Byzantium and Byzantine art 7 Status quaestionis 9 Coronation ritual 9 The votive crown of Leo VI 11 The Holy Crown of Hungary 13 The crown of Constantine IX Monomachos 15 The crown of Constance of Aragon 17 1. Byzantine crowns as objects 19 1.1 The votive crown of Leo VI 19 1.1.1 Crown of Leo VI: a votive offering? 19 1.1.2 Iconography and composition of the crown 20 1.1.3 Contacts between Venice and Constantinople, and the history of Leo VI’s crown 21 1.1.4 Role of the votive crowns in sacral space 23 . Transfer of the crown change in iconography? 24 1.2 The crown of Constantine Monomachos 26 1.2.1 Description and original arrangement of the plaques 26 . Monomachos crown a forgery? 28 1.2.3 Monomachos crown as mirror of imperial virtues 30 1.2.4 Why was the crown found in Ivanka pri Nitre? 33 1.2.5 Relations between Byzantium and Hungary in the first half of the 11th century 34 1.3 The Holy Crown of Hungary 36 1.3.1 Composition and iconographic “programme“ of the corona graeca 36 1.3.2 Corona graeca as a gift to a consort 38 1.3.3 Historical circumstances of the imperial gift 40 1.3.4 Transformation of the crown 41 1.4 The diadem from Preslav 43 1.4.1 The Preslav Treasure: its discovery and dating 43 1.4.2 Description of the diadem 44 .4.3 Gift’s „message“ 45 .4.4 Circumstances of the diadem’s transfer to Bulgaria 46 1.5 Plaques from the Pericope Book of Emperor Henry II 47 1.6 Plaques from the Khakhuli Triptych 48 1.6.1 Relations between Byzantium and Georgia 48 1.6.2 Two spoliated diadems 49 2. est eti a ro riation si n o as ion or o iti a as irations? 52 . The „kamelaukion“ of Queen Constance of Aragon 52 2.1.1 The present state of the crown 52 2.1.2. Kamelaukion or not? The „kamelaukion“ from Palermo before restorations 53 2.1.3 The crown from Palermo: a coronation crown of Frederick II? 55 . .4 The crown from Palermo as woman’s crown 56 2.1.5 Ties with Palermo and Byzantium 57 . The diadems from Kievan Rus‘ 59 2.2.1 Kiev as artistic centre 59 2.2.2 Diadems from Kiev 60 2.2.3 Differences between Kievan and Byzantine enamel 61 .3 „Byzantine“ crown of William the Conqueror 62 3. The crowns in Byzantium 64 3.1 Changing form of the imperial crown 64 3.2 Byzantine crowns in the context of court customs 67 3.3 The crown and the Church 69 3.4 The meanings of the crown 69 4. Crowns as tools of diplomacy 71 4.1 Moving of objects and mechanism of gift-giving 71 4.2 Crowns as part of the visual representation of the Byzantine emperor 72 4.3 Crowns as gifts: objectives and restrictions 73 4.4 Why gifted crowns differed from the ones used in Byzantium? 75 5. The ritual function of the crowns 78 5.1 Byzantine coronation ritual 78 5.1.1 Coronation in De cerimoniis 78 5.1.2 Changes in the ritual after the 12th century 81 5.1.3 Depictions of coronations 84 5.2 Coronation in Bulgaria 84 5.3 Latin coronation 85 5.3.1 Crowning of Hungarian king in the Arpadian era 85 5.3.2 The Roman coronation of Frederick II Hohenstaufen and Constance of Aragon 88 5.4 Coronation in Byzantium and in the West: status of the candidate 89 5.5 Dissemination of the Byzantine imperial representation 89 5.5.1 Hungarian Kingdom 89 5.5.2 Georgian lands 90 5.5.3 Bulgarian Kingdom 91 5.5.4 Rus 91 5.5.5 Norman Sicily 92 Conclusions and personal observations 94 Bibliography 96 Illustrations 112 Introduction Just as the ruler’s body and behaviour were held to ideals of beauty and decorum, his costume and regalia were the visible expression of his majesty and virtues. “Your might is made known (...) by the throne, and by the tiara, and by the pearl-spangled robe,” said Euthymios Malakes (c. 1115-before 1204) to Manuel I Komnenos (1143-1180) in 1161. For the rhetorician each jewel of the emperor’s regalia symbolized an aspect of his virtue.1 The anonymous description of Manuel I presiding over the tournament says that the gold of his crown “flashed like lightning, the pearls appeared white, and the precious red stone glistened, these being mirror of the treasury of wisdom that resides in the emperor’s head.”2 Byzantine crowns, mainly their distribution behind the frontiers of the Empire, will be discussed further in my thesis. I don’t restrict myself only to objects physically created in Byzantium or by Byzantine workshop. I’m nearly as drawn to the crowns crafted behind the borders of the Empire, in lands culturally or diplomatically connected with it. In this case, the question I’m trying to answer is what exactly prompted the foreign commissioners to demand the use of motifs prevalent in Byzantine courtly art. The primary subjects of my research are the four most famous preserved crowns in the time span of 9th to 13th c.: the Monomachos crown, housed in the National Museum in Budapest; the Holy Crown of Hungary, now in the building of the Hungarian Parliament; the votive crown of Leo VI from the basilica of San Marco in Venice, and the crown of Queen Constance of Aragon in the Palermo cathedral. Nonetheless, I also tried to include other objects, sometimes only mentioned in sources or suspected to be parts of coronation insignia, such as the crown of William the Conqueror, the enamels from the Pericopes of Henry II and enamel groups from the Khakhuli triptych. I’m mostly interested in the ritualized nature of the crowns as objects of coronation. In this case, I study the coronation rituals of medieval Hungary, Holy Roman Empire of Frederick II Hohenstaufen (1220-1250) and compare them to the official ritual of the Byzantine court. From this comparison, I try to understand whether there was an actual response in the ritual to the arrival of the Byzantine crown, e.g. whether it was an impulse for the adoption of Byzantine elements in the ritual. The other big question perpetually appearing in my research is the role of the crowns in the Byzantine diplomacy and the specific messages included in their production and sending. The structure of my thesis is as follows: in the first chapter a short overview of the state of research on the coronation ritual and on the four most famous crowns will be laid down. Because of the wide span of the topics the referred bibliography will be selective. The next two chapters will create case studies of Byzantine and Byzantium-inspired crowns. The fourth chapter will introduce crowns worn by Byzantine emperors, changes that they underwent 1 Maguire (1997), pp. 186-187. Source: Magdalino (1993), pp. 463; Papadopulos-Kerameus (ed.) (1913), pp. 63: „...τό ϰράτος ού τό πέδιλον μόνον, άλλα ϰαί ό ϑρόνος ϰαί ή τιάρα ϰαί τό περιμάργαρον έσϑημα...“ 2 Maguire (1997a)., pp. 187. Source: Lampros (1908), pp. 7: “Ηστραπτε μεν ό χρυσός, ό μάργαρος έλίυϰαίνετο ϰαί ό λυχνίτης ίπεστιλϐε ϰαί ησαν ϰάτοπρον ταΰτα τοϋ τη ϰεφαλή του βασιλεως έγϰειμενου θησαυρού της φρονήσεως, ϰαί μονονού παρήν επάδειν προφητιϰώτατα βασιλεύ έδόθη σοι φρόνησις, ήλθε δε σοι τά αγαθά όμου πάντα.“ 6 between the 9th and the 13th century, their place in the court ceremonial and their sacred status. In the last part of this work the role of the crowns in Byzantine diplomacy and the particularities of their form as gifts will be defined. A special focus will be put on the sociological aspects of gift-giving in the elite environment. Finally, I will compare the coronation rituals (in the extent of the preserved records) in Byzantium, Bulgaria, Hungary, and the Holy Roman Empire in the first half of the 13th century and study the dissemination of the Byzantine imperial representation in countries with strong diplomatic relations to the Empire. The aim of my thesis is to describe the specific circumstances of creation and exchange of crowns with Byzantine inspiration or provenance, to define the differences in their form and meaning in comparison with the crowns of the Byzantine monarchs, to place them in the context of mechanism of gift-giving at the Byzantine court and to speculate to what extent they had the power to change the process of foreign coronations.