The Emperor and the Icon
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5617/acta.5704Abstract
The emperor has been credited with many things, why not icons? Modern art historians have enthusiastically subscribed to a theory crediting the emperor with a major role in the development of icons, brushing aside all evidence to the contrary, whether archaeological or literary. But early sources on the Christian icon consistently parallel it not with emperor cult, but with the private icon cult observable among the pagans, and a large body of Late Antique pagan icons (at least 30) has survived into the twentieth century with close similarities to early Byzantine icons.
How to Cite
Mathews, T. F. (2020) “The Emperor and the Icon”, Acta ad archaeologiam et artium historiam pertinentia, 15(1 N.S.), pp. 163–177. doi: 10.5617/acta.5704.
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