Somehow I missed this last December. It appears to have been painted during his lifetime, likely by someone who knew what he looked like.
The presence of the double-headed eagles on the figure’s garment, in combination with the other insignia, identifies the man in the image as the emperor.
Constantine XI Palaiologos’ brothers, the despotes Demetrios and Thomas, were the sponsors of the Monastery’s renovation. [Note: But they were not Emperors and the portrait is definitely an Emperor - Borepatch]
The newly discovered portrait is the last chronologically surviving portrait of an emperor in Byzantine monumental painting and the only portrait of Constantine XI Palaiologos during his brief reign (6 January 1449 – 29 May 1453).
The double eagle symbol came into common use during the last dynasty of the emperors.
1 comment:
Ever the historian, eh? HAR HA HAR! I remember 100 years ago when you did a lecture comparing and contrasting the Roman Empire with modern America during the Obutthole Regime. I fell in love with the Romans after reading that, and read all I could about them after that.
I dunno where I found it - I shoulda grabbed it for ya: they found an old parchment or tablet from an old noble Roman patriarch or Plutarch from biblical times. It was a eulogy written in Archaic Latin - for his dawg. He describes his joy of bringing the new pup into his home, held in his hands, the antics and mayhem as it grew, and his sorrow as he had to carry her again in his own hands to her final resting place. Ughhh…it almost choked me up, reading it 2000 years later.
One can easily get lost in history… and yet find himself in it too…
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