Sovereign Portraits at Mark’s Monastery Revisited

The article challenges the long existing interpretation of the royal portrait of King Mark from the south gate of the Mark’s monastery near Skopje. The curved object he holds in his right arm is usually identified as anointment horn, and this unique iconography is accordingly explained as his being New David. However, the frescoes in monastery Jošanica offer another possibility in that the identical object represents a trumpet instead, therefore enabling different interpretation of the royal imagery in Mark’s monastery.