IKON

This paper serving as a key-note address has as its aim to propose some types of images crucial for conveying special political messages in medieval, primarily public, art. They are according to the author a poster, a condensed public image conveying a specific political message; an icon, an extrapolation of the central image, most often of a leader from a poster; and a badge, a highly abbreviated sign summing up the essence of a movement or an idea. The conclusion is that every art is at least somewhat “political” since as a piece of communication it aims at imposing one’s world view or ideology.

Arnaldo Momigliano drew our attention on the fact that Christians in Late Antiquity did not try to Christianize ordinary political history, i.e. the imperial realm. Indeed, history writing, all the way to Procopius, remained staunchly traditional. A similar phenomenon is present in visual arts. The absence of Christian themes and symbols on Constantine’s triumphal arch in Rome has often been understood as a proof of Constantine’s phony conversion to Christianity. However, if we look closer at the iconography of imperial art throughout the 4^th century, we shall discover that it rarely, if ever, puts an emphasis on religious convictions of the ruler (which may have been taken for granted).

I mosaici di Sant’Apollinare Nuovo intendevano originariamente propagandare il potere regale di Teodorico e le sue fonti di legittimazione: l’arcivescovo Agnello, per compiacere Giustiniano, ritenne indispensabile epurarli quando riconciliò la basilica al culto cattolico. Le immagini cancellate dal Palatium, ossia una scena allegorica di Adventus nel timpano e la statua equestre del re goto donata da Zenone, erano infatti in origine un richiamo al sostegno senatoriale ed imperiale alla riconquista dell’Occidente da parte di Teodorico. Quest’ultimo entrò dapprima a Classe e fu poi accolto trionfalmente dinanzi a Ravenna da clero e popolo, e tale percorso sembra essere quello descritto dal registro musivo inferiore settentrionale e meridionale, poiché la porta urbica ravennate, raffigurata nel mosaico, sembrerebbe quella di San Lorenzo (collocata topograficamente tra Classe e il Palazzo teodericiano). Si può pertanto ipotizzare che nel registro inferiore della controfacciata, ora privo di decorazione, fosse effigiato in origine l’Adventus del sovrano a Ravenna. A tale soggetto forse corrispondeva, nel registro superiore della controfacciata, la scena dell’Ingresso di Gesù in Gerusalemme, episodio in cui i Giudei proclamarono trionfalmente loro re Cristo. Il tema della sovranità divina, modello di quella terrena di Teodorico, compariva anche nel regi- stro inferiore: il corteo regale da Classe giungeva infatti alla figura della Vergine in trono – probabile riferimento topografico alla chiesa di Santa Maria ad Blachernas, fuori Porta San Lorenzo – e si concludeva nel Pantokrator “Rex gloriae” del registro meridionale, che, essendo effigiato oltre il Palatium, intendeva evidentemente evocare la basilica stessa di Sant’Apollinare Nuovo, dedicata in origine a Cristo.

In Palatine basilica erected by Theodoric, the current Sant’ Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, mosaics that decorated the walls of the building, before they were removed by Archbishop Agnellus in the second half of the sixth century, intended to celebrate the royal power of the Gothic sovereign and the sources of his legitimacy. The image of Palatium, now reduced to a simple architectural structure, originally showed various images, reproducing monuments actually existed or mosaics in Ravenna’s Chalkè, i.e. the entrance of the monumental Palace of Theodoric, described by the chronicler Agnellus: the composition of Adventus of Theodoric in Ravenna highlighted the support of the Roman Senate, the equestrian statue donated by the emperor Zeno extolled the legitimacy obtained by the deceased emperor and, finally, the statues, which originally stood within the arches of the porch, instead of curtains, perhaps depicted the imperial couple or the Gothic royal couple along with dignitaries. These images would offer the viewer, in reality as well as transposed into the mosaic, the image of the Gothic court in Ravenna. It is clear that the removals had essentially political character of damnatio memoriae rather than the intent to convert to Orthodoxy the iconography that actually seems to had faint ties to the explicitly Arian aspects. The evocation of royal Adventus in Ravenna is thus transformed into a religious procession towards the Theotokos and Pantocrator in which Theodoric was probably portrayed in the act of offering, as votive offerings for the victory over Odoacer and the seizure of power in the West, the models of the basilicas of Santa Maria ad Blachernas and Saint Savior.

Sulpicius Severus’ Life of Saint Martin, a foundational text of Latin hagiography, presents the charismatic authority and wonder-working power of the monk-bishop of Tours. It is a life studded with cameo encounters with Roman emperors: with Julian, who challenges Martin’s God; with Magnus Maximus, who challenges Martin’s priestly authority; and with the ’emperor of the world’, Satan, who challenges Martin’s faith. The encounters take place in military, courtly and monastic contexts and are evocative not only ideologically, but also visually. Sulpicius Severus’ powerful images bring these meetings alive and reinforce the subversive potential of the stories. Martin humiliates each emperor by the superior power of his God and by his own superior, ascetic, virtue. The appearance of the devil is particularly intriguing, for it raises the question of what distinguishes secular rulers from Satan. Analyzing the historical references and the literary stylization of Martin’s meetings with the emperors, this paper suggests that the holy man’s spectacular countdowns with the sovereigns serve not only to advertise Sulpicius’ ascetic propaganda, but also his political philosophy. The function of the emperor in the Vita Martini is to demonstrate the necessity of a dramatic break with the world, to define the proper relationship between spiritual and secular power and to extol the superiority of spiritual authority over earthly sovereignty.

Representations of the Adoration of the Cross usually show the cross flanked by saints or angels, making up an imperial composition. I will concentrate on two groups of Adoration by Peter and Paul that directly and indirectly relate to Jerusalem. The first has an elevated Christogram as the object of veneration. Made in Rome in the second half of the fourth century, it may have been associated with the Apparition of the Cross reported by Cyril of Jerusalem in 351. The second, with an acclamation of a monumental cross, is an example of the decorated portable Palestinian art of the sixth and seventh centuries. I will argue that the two variations of a cross as the focus of a Herrscherbild composition reflect adoration and veneration of a place with a significant local memory of past history.

In the Museum of History in Bergen, an antependium is found with a peculiar iconography. The altar screen, dating to c. 1310, originates from the church of Nedstryn, Norway, and retells the legend of the Exultation of the Cross in eight medallions divided in two registers. In this contribution I will elaborate the North European iconological context of the legend of the Exultation. I will compare the antependium with analogue themes in miniatures, murals and retables, which hitherto hasn’t been associated with the Nedstryn iconography

Da tempo si discute sulle varie possibilità di identificare il regnante rappresentato sul rilievo appartenente al cancellum di una chiesa monumentle dell’XI secolo, successivamente usato per la realizzazione del recinto della fonte battesimale del battistero della cattedrale di Spalato. Analizzando l’iconografia del rilievo, l’ipotesi che si tratti della figura di Cristo va subito eliminata mentre si conferma il tema del Rex iustus, cioe’ la rappresentazione di un sovrano terreno abbastanza significativo da meritarsi un’ effigie del presbiterio. La giustificazione di base va cercata nei principi della riforma della chiesa della metà dell’XI secolo, periodo in cui sale al trono dello Stato unito di Croazia e Dalmazia Petar Krešimir IV, ultimo erede della famiglia dei Trpimirović. La sua violenta detronizzazione nel 1074 voluta da papa Gregorio IV, spiega l’evidente atto della damnatio memoriae presente nel rilievo; collegando i dati di fatto storici con gli elementi leggibili dell’immagine marmorea, il contenuto dell’opera esce dall’anonimato.

It has been a matter of an ongoing discussion how to identify a sovereign represented on the relief belonging to the altar enclosure of a monumental church of the eleventh century in Dalmatia. The relief has later been reused for the construction of the baptismal font in the baptistery of the cathedral of Split. The hypothesis that Christ has been represented should be excluded while the subject of Rex iustus is to be confirmed - portrayal of an earthly sovereign significant enough to merit a representation in the presbytery. The basic argument must be sought in the principles of the reform of the church in the mid of the eleventh century, a time of Petar Kresimir IV, the last heir of the family of Trpimirović, rising to the throne of the united kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia. Its violent overthrow in 1074, instructed by Pope Gregory IV, explains the apparent act of damnatio memoriae presented in the relief. Linking historical facts with the elements legible on the stone image, the content of the work appears understandable and above anonymousness

Attorno alla metà dell’VIII secolo fu particolarmente promosso il culto di San Silvestro, responsabile, secondo la tradizione agiografica tramandata dagli Actus Sylvestri, della conversione dell’imperatore Costantino. Il racconto silvestrino fu utilizzato dai pontefici eminentemente per due scopi, ovvero come sostegno alla lotta contro l’iconoclastia orientale e soprattutto come strumento di legittimazione del potere temporale della Chiesa di Roma. In tale contesto politico, in effetti, gli studiosi collocano la redazione del Constitutum o Donatio Constantini. Nell’ambito di queste vicende storiche papa Stefano II fece trasformare un mausoleo imperiale presso San Pietro in una cappella dedicata a santa Petronilla, affrescata con le storie di Costantino imperatore e riservata al culto privato dei sovrani carolingi, mentre i suoi successori promossero interventi miranti a esaltare il racconto silvestrino all’interno della basilica vaticana. Leone III commissionò le due realizzazioni monumentali più significative nelle quali Carlo è protagonista all’interno di un allestimento iconografico che rispecchia l’ideologia papale del potere: il Triclinio Leoniano al Laterano e l’abside musiva della chiesa di Santa Susanna. Il modello costantiniano funse anche da fonte iconografica per l’autocelebrazione della dinastia carolingia. A questo scopo fu riproposta una fitta rete di rimandi simbolici, miranti alla creazione di un parallelismo tra Costantino e Carlo Magno. A sua volta quest’ultimo, nei secoli successivi, divenne il paradigma del monarca ideale, al pari di Costantino. In questo fenomeno rientrano due episodi nevralgici nella mitogenesi carolina, ovvero il rinvenimento della tomba di Carlo da parte di Ottone III nell’anno Mille e la sua canonizzazione nel 1165 alla presenza di Federico Barbarossa, attraverso cui si voleva proclamare l’eredità politica e spirituale dell’imperatore franco. La fascinazione esercitata dalla figura di Carlo nei confronti dell’immaginario eroico e celebrativo continuò ad essere costante, così come la sua associazione al nome ormai epico di Costantino, anche grazie alla produzione di testi letterari che evidenziavano le gesta eroiche di Carlo Magno, perlopiù del tutto fantasiose e incentrate sulla lotta a difesa della Cristianità contro gli infedeli, in Palestina e in Spagna.

Around the mid-eighth century, especially during the pontificate of Stephen II (752-757) and Paul I (757-767) was notably promoted the cult of St Sylvester, responsible, according to the hagiographic tradition handed down by the Actus Sylvestri, for the conversion of Emperor Constantine. The story was used by the popes eminently for two purposes: as support for the struggle against eastern iconoclasm and, especially, as an instrument of legitimation of the temporal power of the Church of Rome. In this political context, in fact, scholars place the writing of Constitutum or Donatio Constantini. Within these historical events Pope Stephen II transformed an imperial mausoleum near St Peter’s in a chapel dedicated to St Petronilla, decorated with the stories from Constantine’s life and reserved for private worship of the Carolingian kings. In 778 Pope Adrian I in a letter celebrated the Frankish king as “new Constantine”. During the pontificate of Leo III two most significant monumental achievements were commissioned, with Charlemagne as the protagonist of the iconographic program in a setting that reflects the ideology of papal power: the Triclinium Leoninum in the Lateran and the apse mosaic of the church of Santa Susana. The Constantinian model, by contrast, not only bowed to the political and religious demands of the pontiffs, but also acted as an iconographic source for the exaltation of the Carolingian dynasty, whose rulers, identified with the first Christian emperor, sought to emphasize their role in defense of faith against the Islamic threat. This phenomenon includes two crucial episodes in Carolingian mitogenesis: the discovery of the tomb of Charlemagne by Otto III in 1000 and his canonization in 1165

In questo articolo si prende in esame la prima scena del racconto narrativo che si snoda nel cosiddetto arazzo o ricamo di Bayeux. La scena è esemplare da diversi punti di vista, in quanto non solo apre la narrazione e dà l’avvio alla sequenza di episodi che il ricamo illustra, ma si pone come un caso esemplare di rappresentazione della regalità. Tale rappresentazione da un lato si rifà a modelli autorevoli di immagini di sovrani in maestà, dall’altro rimanda forse, soprattutto nella resa delle architetture e degli spazi, direttamente alla realtà visibile. Alle composizioni e alle modalità figurative della tradizione antica, tardo-antica e carolingia si associa dunque in questa scena un approccio immediato alla realtà che gli artisti o gli ideatori delle immagini avevano davanti ai loro occhi.

The embroidery of the Bayeux, which is continued to be called “tapestry” even though it was not made in this technique, illustrates the story of the conquest of England by the Normans in 1066, providing valuable information about daily and military life of the time. The date of its manufacture is still uncertain, but the 1066 is the terminus post quem it was fabricate. The embroidery depicts, in seventy-two episodes, the rivalry for the succession of throne of King Edward of England between his cousin Harold and Duke William of Normandy. The narrative begins with the sending of Harold in France by Edward and ends with the Battle of Hastings which will allow William to ascend the throne of England with the title “Conqueror”. The first scene introduces Edward the Confessor, English king from 1042 to 1066. The inscription “Edward rex” surmounts the image depicting Edward in his palace with a large scepter in his hand, while giving instructions to two Anglo-Saxons, one of whom is Harold, to who the king is entrusted the mission. Edward appears “in majesty”, seated on a throne in almost frontal position, slightly turned and inclined toward the other characters. All the figures are situated below a sort of an arch, within architectural context, with the king placed in the central axis of the structure. The architecture in question is certainly to be identified as that of Edward’s palace of Westminster, represented both outside and inside, dominated by a robust entry, almost a two-storey Westwerk, flanked by circular towers, following the model of city gates. We can see a monumental entrance at the ground floor and a balcony at the upper floor with a “solarium” from which the ruler could dominate the open space in front of the palace and give speeches to assembly, according to the royal religious models such as the Palatine Chapel in Aachen, in front of which, above the entrance, the first storey, corresponding to the imperial tribune, opens with a porch to the atrium of the church. At the other end of the structure, the three-storey tower is used to accentuate the importance of the open gate, depicted with all its details and with its metal parts in plain view. The format of the gate, oversized in relation to the proportions of the tower, reflects the desire to refer to the departure of the delegation of Harold and his soldiers for Normandy, a way of representation already seen on the columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius. At ground floor level, the polychrome decoration depicting a grid could be interpreted both as a wall decoration of the façade or as the graphic of the coffered ceiling that could cover the compartment behind the arch of the entrance, namely the vestibule behind the monumental gate of the palace. This gate, among other, is represented as a solemn entrance, without embrasures, as a simple monumental arch supported by columns with the corresponding capitals, but preceded by a series of steps. As for the structure above the figures, a roof or ceiling is represented in an unusual design not to be found in other scenes of the embroidery of Bayeux or, more generally, in medieval representations of architectural interiors or architecture framing different aulic episodes. In this case we are not dealing with a flat ceiling or even the external view of the tiles on a roof, but we seem to see a fabric folded and tied in its center, as is demonstrated by the zenith element, the strips that adorn the textile and even the progressive narrowing towards the top. To situate this scene in the courtyard of the palace and to recognize in this particular textile a monumental structure resembling a canopy, which emphasizes the solemnity of the scene, correspond well to the protocol of the time. The author also analyzes the gestures of the characters, and proposes hypotheses about the significance of the different postures of the figures in the scenes with Edward.

In the decades after the English invasion of Ireland of c.1170, the scholar and archdeacon Gerald of Wales produced two texts about the newly conquered country. The first (De Topographia Hibernica) dealt with the country and its people, whilst the second (De Expugnatio Hibernica) discussed the conquest. In both texts Gerald sought to justify the invasion, and as part of this larger narrative he cited examples of different kinds of rulers and activities associated with them. By the year 1200 some copies of Gerald’s works were being produced with illustrations, which served to underline particular incidents in the text. Two surviving copies from c.1200 provide sharply contrasting accounts of a barbaric native Irish ruler and the new Christian king Henry II (and his family), through a combination of texts and images. The largely positive presentation of the English monarch in the text was due in part to Gerald’s attempts to attract patronage from members of the royal family, to whom both Gerald’s texts on Ireland were dedicated. However, as a representative of the church, Gerald also offered some criticisms of the English monarch’s behaviour, suggesting that there remained room for improvement. Moreover, whilst the treatment of the surviving illustrated copies required considerable investment of time and materials, these books do not seem to have been produced for a ruling monarch. Instead Gerald’s references to his intended audiences suggest that the images may have served to pique the interest of the noble elite, conveying Gerald’s ideas about the monarchy to a wider audience than the texts’ dedicatees and other scholars.

This study has two aims: the first is to show how and to what extent these mechanisms that were motivated by the lack of a Church-sanctioned coronation were reflected in the iconography of the kings; and the second, is to determine why Peter IV (also known as Peter the Ceremonious) was so active in disseminating these legitimizing mechanisms in art and literature

Le „portrait caché“ de Philippe le Beau, fils de Marie de Bourgogne et de Maximilien d’Autriche, en guise de saint Bavon sur le volet extérieur droit du célèbre Jugement dernier de Jérôme Bosch, nous pose un problème d’interprétation car il semble qu’aucun lien évident n’existe entre le jeune duc et le saint local gantois. Le présent article tente de prouver que le choix de ce saint a été en premier lieu déterminé par son attribut traditionnel, le faucon, qui jouissait d’une importance particulière dans l’iconographie bourguignonne et habsburgienne. Sélectionné par Marie de Bourgogne comme symbole représentant la légitimité de sa succession et de son pouvoir de duchesse suo jure, il était donc repris plus tard dans les portraits officiels de son fils, pour marquer son statut d’héritier du patrimoine bourguignon et confirmer la légitimité de la régence de son père Maximilien. En choisissant à son tour, une quinzaine d’années plus tard, d’être représenté en saint Bavon avec son attribut de faucon, Philippe créa ainsi une image chargée de contenu à la fois sacral et politique. Exprimant les liens dynastiques et les droits d’héritier légitime des ducs de Bourgogne, elle avançait en même temps l’idée d’un souverain idéal, pacificateur et bienfaiteur.

Among the numerous extant portraits of Philip the Handsome (1478-1506), son of Mary of Burgundy and of Maximilian of Austria, created in his lifetime, one in particular attracts the imagination of a modern viewer: on the right external wing of Hieronymus Bosch’s famous “Last Judgement” triptych (now in Vienna), the young duke is represented as St Bavo. Introduced by Dirk Bax as early as 1983, this curious iconography has still not received a conclusive explanation. In the Middle Ages the religious metaphor was one of the most powerful means of the princely propaganda, and some of Philip’s ancestors were represented as or compared to various saints or personages of the sacred history. Nevertheless, no one of them was ever depicted as St Bavo, and the choice of this local Ghent and Haarlem saint does not seem to have been evident for Philip. This paper argues that the choice of St Bavo was caused mainly by his attribute – a falcon that can also be found in some childhood portraits of Philip and that played an essential part in the lifetime iconography of Mary of Burgundy, being a symbol of her rights to the heritage of her forefathers and of her power as a duchess suo jure. Employing falcon as his mother’s attribute to stress his origins and hereditary rights, Philippe might also have been governed by the desire to create a synthetic image charged with the sacred as well as political meaning: establishing the “visual” continuous line of succession from the Dukes of Burgundy to the House of Habsburgs, it conveyed at the same time the idea of a perfect sovereign, benefactor and pacificator.

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.

A complex allegorical late fifteenth-century picture of which the original is lost survives only in a series of variously degraded copies, be they either German woodcuts or Italian engravings. This image has remained unsatisfactorily explained, no doubt because of its unconventional iconography. Instead of the usual interpretation of the picture as a satirical comment on the contemporary political situation, we propose to understand it as a prophetic image announcing the imminent coming of the Second Charlemagne – a French king who would become the Last World Emperor – turning thus an anachronistic journalistic picture into a more convincing image of eschatological hope.

One of the most complex cultural representational systems of the early modern period was the English Renaissance stage. It not only reflected on the world picture, the politics, and ethics of the age, but also fused representational traditions, such as allegorism, emblematism, and naturalism, in a unique multimedial way. Recent scholarship has increasingly focussed on the mediality and representational logic of this theatrical practice, including research in emblem studies, theatricality, the politics of images, the carnivalesque, etc. In my paper I am going to touch upon the theories of rulership (the king’s two bodies, the medieval patriarchal view, Machiavelli’s Realpolitik); the emblematic representations of power in the early modern period; and representations of power in bonam partem and in malam partem in some plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. A particularly interesting case study is Shakespeare’s Henry V and its two famous filmic recycling by Laurence Olivier (1944) and Kenneth Branagh (1989). In conclusion I demonstrate the hermeneutical intricacies in this reception history.

This contribution deals with the Nachleben of the famous columnar device of emperor Charles V (1500-1558). Until recently, research on royal representations mainly focused on art forms like portraits or literary panegyrics. Nevertheless, the more abstract imagery of devices constituted the most expanded type of the visualization of power. Their polysemic nature made them into dynamic signs, who were subjected to a continuous process of appropriation and reinterpretation. Particular symbolism was constantly merged with other (textual) signifiers and iconographic elements, creating different meanings in different contexts. I will argue that this process of appropriation turned Charles’ device into a dynamic symbol serving the agenda of various groups in society, rather than the static representation of rulership. The possibility to detach from the individual connotation ensured that it remained a potent iconographic theme throughout the studied period. The iconographic production can be grouped into three ‘traditions’: the use of the device in the political field – by successors or political rivals − the application as a ‘sacral emblem’, and the discourse of seventeenth century science. Nevertheless, these various interpretations were all united by the same expression of an essential theme deeply rooted in early modern culture: transgressing boundaries and the search for divine truth.

The architectural evolution of the Louvre between the 15^th and 17^th century is characterized by systematic attempts to distinguish the building within the broader context of French styles. In the 15^th and early 16^th century, this is achieved by producing grander and more elaborate versions of the contemporary French architectural solutions. From the late 16^th century on, the affectation of an Italian manner becomes the most significant way of achieving this distinction. This article reviews and examines the interventions on the Louvre under Charles V, Francis I, and Henry IV, then stresses the importance of resorting to an Italian style in the process of building Louis XIV’s East façade. Its famous colonnade, before coming to be seen as a hallmark of French classicism, owes its existence to the intent of differentiating the King’s palace from the prevalent standards of French aristocratic architecture, thus marking the monarch’s uniqueness.

The teatro Farnese in Parma, though finished in 1618, is arranged according to ideas about courtly theatres that were developed over the sixteenth century. It is what was called in Italian an apparato or sometimes a macchina: an impressive architectonic construction richly decorated with meaningful paintings and statues, which was built for a special occasion, and designed for broadcasting its patron’s status and magnificence to foreign guests and local notables. Unlike most ephemeral structures, this theatre was not demolished after use, perhaps because the occasion for which it was intended never took place. Instead, it survived as an allegorical museum of Farnese history and can be interpreted as a dual mirror of princes; on the one hand it presented a collection of examples of virtues and skills to be imitated

The paper discusses the development of the iconographical models of the image of King Ladislaus in the Middle Ages, as the Holy King and a brave warrior and knight, based on the legend of his life. Representations of King Ladislaus were wide-spread in the Hungarian lands, thus also in the Zagreb Diocese founded by Ladislaus in 1094. In the second half of the 17^th and in early 18^th century there was a renewed interest for the cult of King Ladislaus, represented in several important commissions of the Zagreb Chapter. Under the influence of contemporary historiography, especially the writings of J. Rattkay of Veliki Tabor and P. R. Vitezović, Ladislaus was interpreted as a local ruler and venerated as the protector of the Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia. After the altars in the Zagreb Diocese (Cathedral, Vrapče, Sisak), the thematically elaborate painted cycle from Zagreb Cathedral and the fresco paintings in the Illyrian-Hungarian College in Bologna which accentuate the new role of King Ladislaus, the “end” of the subject was marked by Bishop Branjug’s commission of the construction and decoration of the parish church of St Ladislaus in Pokupsko (1736-39). The theatrically conceived main altar includes an iconographical programme envisaged within the Zagreb cultural and political circle. Similarities in the interpretation of a holy king can be discerned in Bohemian art in the changes of the iconography of St Wenceslaus, which reflect the wide-spread idea of the return to roots and the cult of local saints in Central European art of the 17^th and 18^th century.

This paper refers to nine illustrated broadsheets in the Zagreb Archdiocese Valvasor Collection of prints. They are centered around the marriages of the Emperor Leopold I. and created in the period 1666-1682. The emperor married three times and along with concomitant events these marriages were presented to the public by illustrated broadsheets of an allegorical- symbolic nature. These illustrated broadsheets are typical examples of Baroque communication strategies, targeted for special occasions and the needs of the highest source: the imperial court.

Parigi, 1783: al Salon l’apparizione di un ritratto di Maria Antonietta “in camicia” desta scandalo. L’autrice, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, ha voluto rendere omaggio alla sua protettrice attraverso un’immagine inedita, moderna e informale, lontana dalle convenzioni del ritratto d’apparato previste per l’iconografia monarchica. Nella difficoltà, la sovrana ”austriaca” si allea con la sua artista. Nascono così immagini che mediano tra l’ufficialità richiesta dalla tradizione di corte e una visione aggiornata sui nuovi modelli culturali previsti per la donna nell’autunno del Secolo dei Lumi. Come ha acutamente osservato Federico Zeri, “l’intelligenza della formula ritrattistica raggiunta da Élisabeth” non si chiude con la fine dell’Ancien Régime, ma ha una sua eredità che rivive nel mondo ottocentesco dell’imperatrice Eugenia e nei ritratti regali di Franz Xaver Winterhalter. I suoi dipinti trasmettono anche l’aspetto più poetico dell’immaginario asburgico: il sogno letterario di Ludovico II di Baviera non è forse lontano dalla creazione di un’iconografia da moderna eroina ottocentesca per la cugina Elisabetta, l’imperatrice “Sissi”. È soprattutto a partire da questi anni, l’età della regina Vittoria, che anche la fotografia diventa mezzo importante per fissare un ritratto dei sovrani che sia “pittorico” ma attuale. E nel Novecento il sogno vittoriano si rinnova nel percorso fotografico di Cecil Beaton per la famiglia Windsor. Nel ricordo dei dipinti sette e ottocenteschi l’obiettivo registra immagini ufficiali impregnate di “rêverie” romantica e di modelli di comportamento sempre più vicini all’universo borghese. Così, Elisabetta II osserva incantata la culla del primogenito come in un dipinto dell’Impressionismo francese...

In 1778 Élizabeth Vigée Le Brun completed the first portrait of Marie Antoinette in a way to content the queen in search of her official image: an iconography that simultaneously manages to bring out the true majesty of the sovereign and her youth. In the following ten years Le Brun produced several images of her royal patron until the great representation of Marie Antoinette and her children (1787). Already in 1783 another portrait had caused a scandal at the Salon in Paris: it was the painting of Marie Antoinette en gaulle and in the context of an official event which featured revolutionary iconography. Contrary to the attacks on the extravagant life of the queen, the artist had chosen to represent her apart from any schematic image, dressed in a soft muslin shirt and with a large feathered hat, simply intent on tying some flowers with a ribbon: iconography which seemed to catch an instant of private habits of Marie Antoinette, who loved to retire in the oasis of the private garden of the Petit Trianon. It is a formula of portraiture, modern and with great impact, destined to be successful over time. Among the great sovereigns of Europe, the perfect model for Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873) is certainly Sissi: through his portraits the artist contributes to the myth of universal beauty of the young Empress. The road opened by Élizabeth Vigée Le Brun regarding the informal portrait of the sovereign, is now ready for permanent open space. Federico Zeri identified the reflections of the pictorial formula developed by Élizabeth Vigée Le Brun also in photography, especially the Anglo-Saxon photography. From 1930 to 1979 Sir Cecil Beaton photographed members of the British royal family. In the object glass of Beaton the ladies of the court had become new stars. It had become necessary for the future queen to withdraw from high-ranking schemes and to approach a bourgeois rhetoric. In the painting The Cradle by Berthe Morisot, Elizabeth is no longer literary heroine nor princely lady, but a real woman. And maybe this would not have been possible if nearly two hundred years before the artist did not realized that sometimes a queen may lay down the crown and go to pick flowers in the garden.

This paper probes the cult of Franz Joseph I from the perspective of the Slovenian painting, sculpture and contemporary literature. The deification of the living ruler in the Western World, where a universal benefactor and saviour is portrayed as a god-made man, one who participates in divinity and exercises a divine kingship on Earth, has origins in the Roman period. In visual art as well as in literature, the motifs with its specific meaning implicitly supported the cult of Franz Joseph. While painters and sculptors were using his physical appearance to immortalize him through portraits and monuments, writers and poets focused on syntax and metaphorical meanings wrapped in rhymes and stories to express his charismatic personality. Austrian court artists, writers and historians represented a high-profile public figure as a military hero, as a father of the nation having emphasized political symbolism (insignias), having referred to his Habsburg ancestors and to other European rulers. On the basis of less known examples of portraits, monuments and texts dedicated to Franz Joseph, this survey analyses iconographic context, function of different types of depictions and also demonstrates the analogies between the centre and the periphery.

The article deals with the perception of imperial persona of Francis I (II) of Austria in Croatia and Dalmatia around 1818 when Emperor visited the two regions of today’s Croatia. There are two principal sources of interpretation of the reign and importance of this ruler: the written and the visual. Until recently, Francis and his co-ruler count Metternich were in Croatian historiography generally considered in negative terms. This text offers a revision of these views. Following the already traditional Habsburg propaganda of the Imperial liberalitas, Francis was in 1818 received by his subjects in Croatia and Dalmatia as a long-awaited Emperor, with new epigraphic, commemorative monuments (triumphal arches, sculptures, pyramids) and, most frequently, with literary compositions in poetry, drama and prose. The examples of such gestures are taken from Zagreb, Zadar, Split and Dubrovnik. Although Francis’ Imperial epithets were various, the author focuses on the Italian variant, nuovo Tito, explaining the connections of the Imperial propaganda with its artistic response at the end of the 18^th century.

This paper analyses the course of changes that followed the arival of new beneficiaries in a church of St Peter. At first it was a part of a Templar estate on the Lands of St Martin. With the abolition of the Templar order most of the Templars joined the Hospitallers. Upon the latters’ takeover of the church, the existing architecture was used as a medium for the expression of the new owner’s ideas mostly through the legend of St Ladislaus represented on the north nave wall. The architecture and architectural sculpture were retained as a framework for the display of the ideas of the new owners closely cooperating with the new rulers of the country and their interests. The church, built with one purpose in mind, was reused for a new cycle of ideological and artistic display – from the Romanesque to the Gothic, from the plain (or plain decorative) to figurative representation, from the Templars to the Hospitallers, from the Arpadian to the Angevins.

This study analyses the miniatures representing royal portraits in the Book of Franchises and Privileges of the Kingdom of Majorca (ARM, codex num. 1). This codex was commissioned in1334 by the jurats, on behalf of the Universitas of the city and kingdom of Majorca, an organism which represented the body of inhabitants under royal rule. It differs from other codices covering similar legal matters, in its extension and sumptuous pictorial program, in the specific way the monarchs are portrayed and in the symbolic value bestowed upon it by its addressees. The miniatures represent the kings on the action of swearing in the continuity of the privileges that their predecessors had granted the citizens of the Kingdom of Majorca. These images were created based on common iconographic models in their geographical context, even though some significant elements were added to them. The royal portraits, with variations, refer precisely to the same episode: when each new king vowed to maintain the privileges that their predecessors had granted to their subjects. These miniatures portray the king the way the subjects wanted him to be.

The island of Krk was the last island of the North Adriatic to become part of the great dominion of the Most Serene Republic of Venice. This article deals with Antonio Vinciguerra, the Secretary of the Republic, who was sent to Krk as its representative in the crucial moment in 1480. He played an important role in the takeover of the island. Vinciguerra was immediately appointed as a proveditor, the role he held for almost a year. We learn of his acts from his manuscript entitled Cronica di Veglia. Symbolic “colonization” of the urban space was a common practice of the Venetian Republic, and the text demonstrates the role of an important figure as the initiator of the gradual and subtle changes in the appearance of the city which would soon boast numerous signs of the Venetian hegemony, such as lions of St Mark.

The paper compares the pseudo-sculptural decoration of the Virgin’s throne depicted at the beginning of the fourteenth century in San Francesco, Rieti and San Francesco, Lodi. It is argued that in Rieti these details represent ministering angles, and they have a theological orientation. In Lodi, however, on the upper part of the funerary monument of Antonio Fissiraga, a representation of St George slaying the dragon can be seen. St George is represented more as a mighty warrior than a saint, especially in contrast to a similar pseudo-sculptural detail from the St John Baptistery in Varese. It appears that in Lodi the decorative details of the Virgin’s throne relate more to the donor, Antonio Fissiraga, signore de Lode, than to the Virgin Mary. In this sense the fresco represents a shift from the theological allusions towards the political ones. Furthermore, the funerary monument of Antonio with its pseudo-sculptural details introduces the sculpted monuments of the signori, exemplified by the monument of Cangrande della Scala in Verona.

Monuments dedicated to the sovereigns in the public space of Zagreb are considered not only works of public art but also symbols of ideological values. Careful analysis of their settings, processes of their removal and the changes that the monument underwent should be included in the interpretation of the monuments and their wider context. Monuments dedicated to the sovereigns possess the power of urban icons, even in times when they are hidden from the public eye by decisions of ‘higher power’.

Barbara Baert, To touch with the gaze. Noli me tangere and the iconic space, Leuven, 2011

Mixed Metaphors: The Danse Macabre in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, edited by Sophie Oosterwijk and Stephanie Knöll, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011