Empress
Irene
and her son
Constantine
VI
Rulers of
Byzantium in the Eight Century
On the
origins of the
Image of
the Madonna and Child.
A Compilation of Portraits by
Hubert de Vries
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During
the reign of Constantine V Copronymus (743-775) Irene had already been depicted with the little Constantine VI
on her lap. This combination can also be interpreted as a representation of
the Holy Virgin Mary and baby Jesus and she was depicted in this way several
times afterwards. Concerning
the ‘Virgins and Child’ made during the lifetime of Irene however, we may be
quite sure that in fact Irene and Constantine are represented ) Doubtless,
these portraits had a propagandistic value because, as they made clear that
at last there was a successor to the throne upon Leo IV’s death, no struggle
between the pretenders for the succession was to be expected. |
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There are four versions of the portraits of
Irene In the first version she is represented standing
alone in a long, likely blue, dress and a mantle. On her kerchief is a jewel
in the shape of a golden square cross and behind her head is a halo which is
also present in all other portraits of her. In the second version she is again dressed in a
blue attire with a halo behind her head. On her lap there is the little
successor of an age of between the age of two and ten years. He has a halo
with a square cross behind his head. This version is doubtlessly the oldest
and can date from the last years of the reign of Constantine V. An example is
the Lorsch-diptych and the mosaic in the apse of the Hagia Sophia in
Constantinople. All later representations of the “Mother of God” are based on
this version. On
a third version, the empress again has a halo behind her head, but is crowned
and dressed in purple imperial, official dress. She wears the broad collar of
pearls which is a part of it. On her feet, she has the red imperial shoes and
she is sitting on a red cushion. This version should date from after the coronation of Irene and Constantine in 776.
Gibbon writes: “The association of the young Constantine
was urged by the officious zeal of his subjects; and the emperor, conscious
of his decay, complied, after a prudent hesitation, with their unanimous
wishes. The royal infant, at the age of five years, was crowned with his
mother Irene; and the national consent was ratified by every circumstance of pomp
and solemnity, that could dazzle the eyes, or bind the conscience, of the
Greeks. An oath of fidelity was administered in the palace, the church, and
the hippodrome, to the several orders of the state, who adjured the holy
names of the son, and mother of God. “Be witness, O Christ! that we will
watch over the safety of Constantine the son of Leo, expose our lives in his
service, and bear true allegiance to his person and posterity.” [1] Examples of the crowned version are
the fresco in the Cimetero di S. Ermete in Rome and the so-called Icon of S.
Maria in Trastevere, also in Rome. In a fourth version Irene is represented again
without Constantine. On the example from the Capella Ricci of the S. Marco in
Florence she is dressed exactly like on the icon in the S. Maria in
Trastevere but she is standing upright with hands blessing. This version was
likely made at the time that she ruled alone, that is to say after 797 |
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It
is true that the struggle between the iconoclasts and the iconodules was still
going on when the portraits were made. But this doesn’t rule out that Empress
Irene is represented, because in the West Irene herself contributed much to
the ending of the contest in 786 and was a declared supporter of the iconodules
who tolerated the veneration of images. Also the Popes took her side in the
contest. Gibbon
devotes a section to Irene and Constantine VI (Vol. III pp. 40 ff..). He
characterizes Irene as being ambitious and cruel. Constantine was deposed at
her command and she orderd his eyes put out. Afterwards he was banned and
died unnoticed years later. Irene herself died in exile in Lesbos under
distressed circumstances The imago’s
of Irene and Constantine are the beginning of a vast quantity of
representations of mother-and-child, symbolizing the Holy Virgin and Jesus. They
are however also in a much older tradition of empress/queen mother and
successor. In the West, Irene can be considered to be the ‘Mother of all
Madonna’s’. The evolution from the imago
of the empress to the mother of Jesus is not so very great because the
emperor was worshipped as a god and for that reason Irene could be considered
to be the mother of God. One can imagine that after the death of Irene there
were a lot of imago’s of her for
which a new destination should be found, also because the artistic value of
the portraits was often very high. This was possible by letting to fade away
the belief that the image was of the Empress Irene, and allowing it instead
to represent the image of the Mother of God. |
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Irene |
753-† 803 Regent 780-790 /
792-797 Empress 797-802 |
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Portraits
Mary orans. Northern wall of
the San Marco, Venice,. |
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1.
Lorsch Diptych, front cover. Victoria & Albert Museum, London inv. n° 138
-1866. The Lorsch Bible has to be dated 790 ca., the
year that Constantine VI took over the rule from his mother. The front cover
represents him as a baby or a toddler, that is to say in about 772. 2.
Mosaic in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. On this mosaic Irene is represented with her
little son on her lap. She is dressed in blue attire which indicates that she
is not yet an empress. In 776 she was crowned suggesting that this mosaic has
to date from the period before that year. 3. Book of
Kells, Ms. 58, Trinity College Dublin, fol. 7v. Representation of mother and child. The woman is seated and dressed
in a purple attire with a kerchief of gold brocade. Behind her head a halo with
little square crosses. The child in a tunica of gold brocade and green attire
but without crown and halo. He is red haired like Constantine VI on a
miniature in the Gospels of Ada (Trier, Stadtbibliothek, cod. 22, fol. 14
v°.). In the corners of the representation are four angels with sceptres. Without
any doubt Empress Irene is represented
with Constantine VI on her lap. The picture dates the manuscript during the
reign of Irene and king Offa of Mercia
(757-796) and in particular about 775 when Irene nor Constantine were
crowned. (Seealso: Three pages of the Book of Kells ) This representation is enigmatic insofar as Irene is already dressed
in purple and Constantine has no halo yet behind his
head. Also different is that the mantle is strewn with groups of three stars
where we would typically expect little crosses. The halo is a-typical and
anticipates the crowns worn later by the Western kings. Probably the
miniaturist worked from a description instead of a drawing? |
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4. Fresco in the Catacomb of S. Ermete in
Rome A woman
in Byzantine imperial dress is represented with a child on her lap. She wears
a crown with pendilia of strings of
pearls. By her side are two angels. To her right a warrior and a woman and to
her left a prelate in monk’s habit. [2] According
to Matthiae the fresco dates from the last years of the pontificate of
Hadrian I (772-795) who also restored the catacomb. [3]. He ruled in the time that
Empress Irene was a regent for her son Constantine VI. The fresco most
probably dates from the period around the coronation of mother and son in
776, taking into account that the boy is still on his mother’s lap. The
warrior on her right may be Charlemagne, king of the Franks (768-814). In this
period, it is said of Charlemagne: “Charlemagne and
his uncle Bernard crossed the Alps in 773 and chased the Lombards back to
Pavia, which they then besieged. Charlemagne temporarily left the siege to
deal with Adelchis, son of Desiderius, who was raising an army at Verona. The
young prince was chased to the Adriatic littoral and he fled to
Constantinople to plead for assistance from Constantine V Copronymus, who was
waging war with the Bulgars. The siege lasted until the
spring of 774, when Charlemagne visited the pope in Rome. There he confirmed
his father's grants of land, with some later chronicles claiming - falsely -
that he also expanded them, granting Tuscany, Emilia, Venice, and Corsica.
The pope granted him the title patrician. He then returned to Pavia,
where the Lombards were on the verge of surrendering.” The
correct dating is after 774 in any case, the year that Charlemagne visited
Rome during his siege of Pavia. The persons represented in that case are
Irene (between angels), Constantine, then at the age of three, seated on her
lap, Charlemagne, his wife Hildegard and pope Hadrian. Charlemagne, born
between 742 and 747, is is then between 27 and 32 years old here. On the other hand the missing of a cross on the crown indicates that the empress was crowned but still had no executive power. This dates the fresco between 776-780. |
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5. Icon from S. Maria in Trastevere. The
legend in the book of Maria Andaloro reads: Die in
kaiserlich-byzantinische Gewänder gekleidete Muttergottes ist hier als Theotokos
abgebildet. Sie sitzt auf dem Thron zwischen zwei Engeln, die gewissermaßen
ihre leibwache darstellen. Rechts unten ist der Stifterpabst mit
quadratischen Nimbus zu sehen. Das großformatige Bildnis, dem in Byzanz
nichts vergleichbares gegenübersteht, weist dieses Werk als römische
Produktion aus, denn in dieser Stadt erfüllen die Ikonen eine rein
öffentliche Funktion. Das in der Cappella Altemps (S. Maria in Trastevere)
aufbewahrte Bild wurde vor kurzem wieder über dem Altar, wo es sich
ursprünglich befand, aufgestellt. [4] The
person represented wears a plate-crown decorated with pearls and big
preciuous stones. On the side-plates groups of three pearls and on the
central plate a square cross. Long pendilia of strings of pearls hang from
the crown. Around her neck is a broad collar of pearls. The child on her lap is
certainly Constantine VI (*771). The regency which she took for her son after
the death of Leo V in 780 can be symbolized by the cross on the crown,
missing on the fresco in the Catacomb of Ermete. The pope represented should then
be Hadrian I (772-795). [5] The angels are the usual
companions of the imperial imago
since the 4th century. The
combination of the cross on the crown and the child on her lap dates the icon
at the beginning of the period of 780-790 |
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Photo H.d.V. 9.8.2006 6 6. Mosaic in the Cappella Ricci of the S.
Marco in Florence. From
the Oratory of Pope John VII (705-707) beside the Old St. Peter in Rome. In
the 17th century it was taken off during the reconstruction by Carlo Maderno
and was transported to Florence. The empress is standing upright with her
hand in a blessing attitude (orans).
Her dress and crown are identical to those on the icon from the S. Maria in
Trastevere, her traits somewhat aged. This mosaic, for that reason, could
date from her term of office in the West (797-800). In 800 Charlemagne instead of Irene was crowned in the West by Pope Leo (795-816). By this coronation a renewed separation of East and West was a fact. In 802 Irene was also deposed in the East. |
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© Hubert
de Vries 16.11.2006. Updated 2008.07.17; 2015.07.18; 2015.10.03