Byzantine Art and Diplomacy in an Age of Decline by Cecily J. Hilsdale

Author:Cecily J. Hilsdale [Hilsdale]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2014-01-07T16:00:00+00:00

95 Grierson, DOC V/1, 95–6, points out that the lengthiest of Andronikos II's inscriptions includes the standard phrase of official imperial documents ἐν Χριστῷ τῷ θεῷ πιστὸς βασιλεὺς καὶ αὐτοκράτωρ ῾Ρωμαίων.

96 As described by Grierson in DOC V/1, 68–9, where he distinguishes between the emperor kneeling and the emperor in proskynesis. Spatharakis, “Proskynesis,” 191, argues that Andronikos II's coin “is the only Byzantine coin we have on which an emperor is shown in proskynesis.” While it is true that his posture is a deeper, more intense form of proskynesis than his father's, as noted in the last chapter, the term proskynesis should be understood to encompass a wider range of gestures – from full prone abasement to a nod or bow. Cutler has treated this posture on this coinage in Transfigurations, 54–6. The kneeling position of Michael VIII's coin was used on one issue of Andronikos II's billon trachea (cf. Cutler, Transfigurations, 55 n. 16). Andronikos III is also represented kneeling before Christ in a similar manner to Michael VIII. Natalia Teteriatnikov, “The New Image of Byzantine Noblemen in Palaiologan Art,” Quaderni Utinensi, 15(16) (1996), 310, has read the transition from Michael VIII's upright kneeling to Andronikos II's deeper proskynesis teleologically and has traced its emulation by later Byzantine aristocrats such as Metochites at the Chora. See Ševčenko's insightful treatment of this kneeling posture in relation to later Byzantine patronage in “The Portrait of Theodore Metochites.” As for the singularity of the coin of an emperor bent low, Jonathan Shea brought to my attention a coin attributed to John V published by Simon Bendall, “Longuet's Salonica Hoard Reexamined,” American Journal of Numismatics/Museum Notes, 29 (1984), 143–58.

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