International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

THE PORTRAIT IN BYZANTIUM AND IN THE BYZANTINE WORLD: 
ITS POLITICAL, SYMBOLICAL AND CEREMONIAL CONTEXTS
Conveners: 
Aleksandr Preobrazhenskii, Dragan Vojvodić 
Lauren Wainwright
, 
Portraits and Processions: Images of Helena in the Streets of Constantinople
Andrea Torno Ginnasi
, 
The Horses of Justinian I: Equestrian Images as a Symbol of Authority 
between Military and Ceremonial Models
Dragan Vojvodić
, 
The Iconography of the Divine Investiture of a Ruler with Military Insignia in Byzantine Art – 
Origin and Meaning
Nazar Kozak
, 
Site-Specificity of Portraits in Kyivan Rus’
Aleksandr Preobrazhenskii
, 
Saints as Donors and Donors as Visionaries. 
On Some Modifications of Donor Portraiture in Byzantine World
Bisserka Penkova
, 
Die Ktetor Bilder aus Bojana als Zeichen der Geschichte und Kultur seiner Zeit
Lilyana Yordanova
, 
Quelques observations sur le portrait du tsar Jean Alexandre à l’église-ossuaire de Bačkovo
Stavroula Dadaki – Sofia Kapeti
, 
The Family Portrait of the Kralj of Serbia Stefan Dušan 
at the Monastery of St John the Forerunner in Serres
Dragana Pavlović
, 
The Spatial and Programmatic Context of the Noble Portraits: Byzantium-Serbia-Bulgaria
Elisabeta Negrău
, 
Policy and Prophecy. The Emergence of the Iconography
of Ruler Crowned by Angels in Wallachia (1543)

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Lauren Wainwright
University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom; 
[e-mail]
Portraits and Processions: Images of Helena in the Streets of Constantinople
Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, is one of the most well-known women from 
the Byzantine period. She was proclaimed 
augusta 
in 324AD and her image appeared on coins 
throughout the reign of her son, and even after her death, during the reigns of her grandsons. 
However no monumental statuary, which can undoubtedly be identified as Helena, survives, yet 
there are Byzantine texts which give examples of these statues existing in Constantinople.
Written five to six hundred years after the life of Helena, the 
Parastaseis Syntomoi Chronikai
and 
Patria
(the two best examples of this type in this period), are patriographic texts known to be quite 
inconsistent and chapters are often full of errors. Yet what is important, however, is that the authors of 
these texts were still, time after time, attributing statues dotted around the city to Helena, and more so 
than any other 
augusta
. By bringing different types of information together – from patriographic texts 
to records and descriptions of the ceremonial – it can be seen that the statues ascribed to Helena were 
not only in key places of political importance, but also in the nodal areas of imperial and ecclesiastical 
processional routes; an integral part of public life in the city. This paper will therefore examine not only 
the placement of the statues that are purportedly of Helena and the importance of these locations, but 
also how these statues became interwoven into the cityscape of Constantinople.