Monomachos crown

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The Monomachos Crown
Dancer with veil

The Monomachos crown is a Byzantine goldsmith's work, decorated and engraved with enameled cells . It is located in the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest . Emperor Constantine IX is shown on seven gold plates . , his wife Zoe and their sister Theodora , two dancers and two allegorical figures . The controversially discussed piece of jewelry was made in Constantinople around 1042 .

The story of the Monomachos crown

The Hungarian King Andrew married a daughter of Grand Duke Yaroslav I ( Anastasia , also called Agmunda, mother of King Solomon ) in Kiev in 1045 , whose brother Vsevolod I had married Irene (Maria) of Byzantium, a daughter of Constantine IX, from 1046. Monomachus was married.

According to the genealogist Szabolcs de Vajay , Andreas should be the crown of Constantine IX. have received. He needed a new crown because Heinrich III. the original crown, allegedly given to Saint Stephen I by Pope Silvester II in the year 1000, captured after the battle of Menfö in 1045 from King Sámuel Aba and sent it back to Rome . The fact that Andreas, who had seized power at the end of September 1046, could not be crowned until February 1047, could be due to the fact that the royal embassy had to travel from Hungary to Constantinople and back in winter to bring the crown to Hungary. In 1057 the young King Solomon was also crowned with this crown. In 1074 , Solomon, defeated by Géza I , fled with crown and treasure in the direction of Pressburg in order to seek the protection of his imperial brother-in-law Heinrich IV . Armed men from Géza attacked his army as they crossed the ford over the Waag at Nyitraivánka . Salomon had his treasures and the crown buried and holed up in Pressburg. When Henry IV made an attempt in September 1074 to win back Hungary for King Solomon, the latter left the emperor's army and rode through the Waagtal towards Neutra to Sempte . It was probably a fruitless attempt to regain the crown hidden by the Nyitraivánka ford.

In 1860 a farmer near Nyitraivánka found the gold plates while plowing. The finder sold them in four lots together with two smaller cell enamel medallions that were also found there, each of which depicts the apostles Peter and Andrew in a bust , to a dealer named Markovits. Through this they came into the possession of the Hungarian National Museum in the years 1861 to 1870.

description

The seven gold plates are 10 cm to 4.5 cm high and 3.5 cm wide as they decrease in size. They have asymmetrically cut holes, the size and distribution of which suggests that the panels were originally connected by a textile or leather . Remains of gold ribbons for joining could be found. It is possible that the seven plates were attached to a cloth hood. The rough processing of the decoration, the thinness of the gold plates and the appearance of errors in the depiction of the clothing and the inscriptions are striking.

The middle and largest plate shows Emperor Constantine IX. Monomachus, who was Byzantine emperor from 1042 to 1055. A Greek inscription on the tablet reads: Constantine, Autocrator of the Romans, Monomachus . His wife is shown on the panel to the right and her sister is shown on the panel to the left. On the smaller panels to the right and left of the empresses there are two dancing, female, allegorical figures. The smallest plates show the personifications of two virtues . The figures wear a nimbus around their heads and are surrounded by tendrils of flowers , birds and cypresses , except for the virtues in the background .

The emperor depicted standing holds the labarum in his right hand and the akakia, a cloth bag that contains dust and symbolizes impermanence, in his left hand . The curved part of the imperial crown is decorated with three spheres at the tips. The empresses wear the same crowns. You hold a scepter in your right or left hand and point to Emperor Constantine with the other hand. He wears the ceremonial robe of a Byzantine ruler with ivy leaf decoration and the Byzantine emblems of rulership Loros and Maniakion. The loros is a sash richly adorned with precious stones, pearls and embroidery, which is placed over the shoulder and wrapped around the hips. One end of the loro fell at the front to the hem, the other end hung straight down. The maniacion is a wide collar adorned with pearls and precious stones. The feet of the three members of the imperial family, clad in red shoes, stand on a suppedion. Both women wear the complete regalia of the empresses with the shield-like thorakion hanging diagonally below the belt. Zoe, who was 64 years old in 1042, appears in an idealized representation as a young woman. The flawed inscriptions say: Theodora, the empress is a believer and Zoe, the empress is a believer .

The background of the panels on which the two dancing women are depicted are decorated with the same foliage, but there are no inscriptions for identification. The dancers swing veils over their heads, bending one leg sharply to the left. The view that they could be professional dancers contradicts the nimbus around the dancer's head, which refers to the sacred sphere.

Two again smaller plates each show a female figure with a nimbus in front of a flat golden background, each surrounded by a cypress tree on the left and right , which symbolizes paradise . According to their inscriptions, they are personifications of the virtues of righteousness and humility . The personification of sincerity holds a cross in one hand and points to her mouth, while the other crosses her arms over her chest in humility.

Controversial classification

In 1937 Magda von Bárány-Oberschall researched the enamelled gold plates. The size of the crown formed from the plates led her to believe that it must be a Byzantine women's crown from the 11th century.

In 1994, the Greek Byzantinist Nicolas Oikonomidès suspected that the Monomachos crown might be a forgery from the 19th century. The rough workmanship, the incorrect and unusual lettering, together with the circumstances of the discovery and possible models of the forgery, brought him to this point of view. He suspected the manufacturer to be in the Venice area , but without being able to name him.

In The State of Research into the Monomachos Crown and Some Further Thoughts. in which Nicolas Oikonomidès' forgery hypothesis was discussed in detail and largely refuted, Etele Kiss from the Hungarian National Museum mentioned that the crown could have been used in a triumphal procession . The seven plates form a circle whose diameter of approx. 22 cm is too small for a woman's head. Since there is no evidence of missing plates, it can be assumed that there were only seven. The diameter suggests that it could be an upper arm bracelet, an armilla given as an award to soldiers, which was worn over the biceps of the upper arm. Among several possible reasons, the triumph on the occasion of the victory of Stephanos Pergamenos over General Georgios Maniakes in the battle of Ostrobos on February 2, 1043 comes into question as the time of use of the piece of jewelry. The triumph of Stephanos Pergamenos was only approved by the emperor at the last moment. This would explain the defects in manufacturing due to the rush. The dancers and allegories depicted also fit in with a triumphal procession. The allegory of humility should then be understood as a reminder to the triumphant. After the festivities, the jewelry could have ended up in the imperial treasury and later given to Hungary as a crown.

literature

  • Iwan Bach, Sándor Mihalik: Problems of the reconstruction of the Monomachos crown , Acta historiae artium, IX, Budapest 1963, pp. 513-514.
  • Magda von Bárány-Oberschall: Konstantinos Monomachos császár koronája. The Crown of the Emperor Constantine Monomachos. Budapest 1937
  • Etele Kiss: The State of Research into the Monomachos Crown and Some Further Thoughts. In: Olenka Z. Pevny (ed.): Perceptions of Byzantium and Its Neighbors (843-1261). New York 2000, ISBN 0-300-08929-5 , pp. 60-83.
  • Etele Kiss: Új eredmények a Monomachus-korona kutatásában? In: Folia Archeologica XLVI, Budapest 1997, pp. 125-162
  • Nicolas Oikonomidès: La couronne dite de Constantin Monomaque , Travaux et Mémoires, Center de Recherche d'Histoire et Civilization de Byzance, 12 (1994) pp. 241-262, 8
  • Klaus Wessel: The Byzantine enamel art: From the 5th to the 13th century. Contributions to the art of the Christian East. Volume 4. Bongers, Recklinghausen 1967, pp. 98-106.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Alexander Nasarenko: Hungary and Russia around the year 1000.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 370 kB) In: Ferenc Glatz (Ed.): The formation of the Hungarian state and East Central Europe. Europa Institut Budapest, Budapest 2002, ISBN 963-202-773-6 , p. 199@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.europainstitut.hu  
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Szabolcs de Vajay: Corona Regia - Corona Regni - Sacra Corona . (PDF file; 2.56 MB) In: Hungary Yearbook. Journal for interdisciplinary hungarology, Volume 7, 1976. pp. 45-46
  3. ↑ Julius Grexa: The problems of the Hungarian royal crown. In Josef Gerhard Farkas (ed.): Tradition and order. Festschrift for Michel de Ferdinandy on his sixtieth birthday. Pressler, Wiesbaden 1972, ISBN 3-87646-025-5 , p. 416
  4. ↑ Josef Deér doubts in: The Holy Crown of Hungary. Vienna 1966, pp. 199–200 that the original Stefan's crown was sent to Rome.
  5. ↑ Julius Grexa: The problems of the Hungarian royal crown. In Josef Gerhard Farkas (ed.): Tradition and order. Festschrift for Michel de Ferdinandy on his sixtieth birthday. Pressler, Wiesbaden 1972, ISBN 3-87646-025-5 , pp. 418-419.
  6. ↑ In contrast to the gold plates, the apostle medallions have holes for nailing. In the opinion of Magda von Bárány-Oberschall, they very probably do not belong to the so-called Monomachos crown
  7. ^ Magda von Bárány-Oberschall: Konstantinos Monomachos császár koronája. The Crown of the Emperor Constantine Monomachos. Budapest 1937, p. 86 ff.
  8. ^ A b Etele Kiss: The State of Research into the Monomachos Crown and Some Further Thoughts. In: Olenka Z. Pevny (ed.): Perceptions of Byzantium and Its Neighbors (843-1261). New York 2000, ISBN 0-300-08929-5
  9. ↑ a b c d Magda von Bárány-Oberschall: Konstantinos Monomachos császár koronája. The Crown of the Emperor Constantine Monomachos. Budapest 1937 pp. 60-78.
  10. ^ Magda von Bárány-Oberschall: Konstantinos Monomachos császár koronája. The Crown of the Emperor Constantine Monomachos. Budapest 1937
  11. ^ Franz Tinnefeld: Nicolas Oikonomidès, La couronne dite de Constantin Monomaque, Travaux et Mémoires (Center de Recherche d'Histoire et Civilization de Byzance) 12 (1994) pp. 241–262, German Archive for Research into the Middle Ages, volume 51, 1995, Book 2, Reviews and Advertisements, No. 187
  12. ↑ Timothy Dawson: Monomachos Crown - Towards a Resolution. ( Memento of the original from March 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Byzantina Symmeikta, Athens 2009. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.byzsym.org
  13. ↑ Johannes Zonaras , 17.22.19: Collapse of Maniakes' rebellion after his death; triumph of Konstantinos IX (& Stephanos Pergamenos)  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Epitome Historion, Prosopography of the Byzantine World, King's College London@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.pbw.kcl.ac.uk  
  14. ↑ A triumph was held with the emperor (Konstantinos IX) presiding in the vestibule facing the agora of the Church of the Savior at the so-called Chalke, with great splendor, the empresses (Zoe and Theodora) being seated on either side of him