Proposal a) Facets of victory – military elements in Byzantine imperial iconography
This project considers the development of the Byzantine portrait of a ruler, from late Antiquity to the late Byzantine era, focussing particularly on the interconnection of sacralised and military aspects. In the early Byzantine era motives such as the Chi-Rho found on the military equipment used by the emperor and his guard point to the anticipated divine aid in battle and the emperor’s proximity to God. In mid-Byzantine times heavenly figures such as archangels or certain saints with close military connotations are placed in the vicinity of the emperor, symbolising his victoriousness. References to Old Testament rulers such as Melchisedek and David and to the Byzantine ceremonial insignia of military semantics will also be considered.
Proposal b) Warriors in church interiors. Weapons and military figures in medieval religious iconographic programmes
Depictions of armed warriors are found in various types of church paintings in the mid- and late byzantine eras. Byzantine military saints are well explored in the research world, but warriors within narrative depictions (such as Judas’ kiss, the taking of Christ on the Mount of Olives, the crucifixion) have received little attention. We must ask whether armour and weaponry are used to conceptualise the depicted warriors (perhaps indicating the Varangian Guard), whether the equipment depicted is contemporary, retrospective or fictive, which position the depictions occupy within the church interior and what role the various groups of figures (or the commissioner) play in the pictorial invention.
Proposal c) The role of icons and relics in Byzantine war culture (p.r.n. in co-operation with Prof. Johannes Pahlizsch)
Links between military activities and Christian cult objects are often found in historiographical sources and in mid-Byzantine panegyric rhetoric. However, there is no synopsis of the ideological exploitation of icons and relics to legitimise warfare (Stephenson offers a review). It is, for example, unclear whether these objects were taken on every campaign or only when the emperor participated. A further question is which objects (relics or icons) were chosen over the course of time and which saints they represented (military saints, mother of god etc.).