3/11/2024 0 Comments Art nouveau tessellation example![]() ![]() The first to be buried was Augusta Maria, the first wife of Honorius, who died young, before 408. ![]() The Mausoleum was used as the resting place for members of the Theodosian Imperial family. The Mausoleum was built next to the Vatican Rotunda, another round structure on Vatican Hill, beside Old Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The Enkolpion was found in February 1544, in Rome, in a sarcophagus in what was once the Mausoleum of Emperor Honorius, later, during the 8 th century, converted into the Chapel of Saint Petronilla. If this isn’t a ‘dynastic imperative’ then what can it be? Married to Serena, the niece of emperor Theodosius I, and guardian for the underage Emperor Honorius, Stelicho was the father of Maria, Emperor Honorius’s first wife, Thermantia, the young Emperor’s second wife, and Eucherius. Maria’s Enkolpion, suggested to be a wedding gift, is a family heirloom! Stelicho, for example, of Vandal origin, was a powerful military commander in the Roman army. Everyone mentioned by name in the two inscriptions is an important member of the Theodosian Dynasty! One cameo reads: Honorius and Maria (the loop of the letter Rho), Stelicho, Serena, vivatis in Deo, and the other cameo reads: Stelicho and Serena (the loop of the letter Rho), Eucherius, Thermantia, vivatis in Deo. How splendid can it be! It can… if you consider the cameos’ simple, yet ‘powerful’ decoration.īoth cameos are embellished with inscriptions, in the shape of Christograms, cut in very low relief, arranged spikelike around a central ansate cross. The two white and russet orange agate cameos it is made of are attached back to back by a band of gold adorned with emeralds and rubies. ![]() It is a flat receptacle of earth grains probably from the Holy Land, smelling, at the time of its discovery, of musk. And historians frequently describe the programmatic effort to bolster dynastic power over the course of the fourth century as a ‘dynastic imperative.’ Is The Enkolpion of Empress Maria in the collection of the Louvre an example of Imperious Power? Worn around the neck of Empress Maria, was this unique Enkolpion an integral part of the sustained program of dynasty building in the tumultuous years following the death of Emperor Theodosius I? Įmpress Maria’s Enkolpion is a small piece of jewelry, 1.3 x 1.8 cm in size, and round in shape. Jewels, and treasure more broadly, also serve as particularly effective metonyms for power. Late Antique poetry has often been characterized by its ‘jeweled style,’ in which authors mobilized ornament, variety, and tessellation for the purposes of visual splendor and immediacy. Enkolpion of Empress Maria, 398-407, Agate Cameo, Gold, Ruby or Garnet, Emerald, 2.6×1.8×1 cm, the Louvre, Paris, France ![]()
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