International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Dragan Vojvodić
University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philosophy, Belgrade, Serbia; 
[e-mail]
The Iconography of the Divine Investiture of a Ruler with Military Insignia 
in Byzantine Art – Origin and Meaning
Imperial weapons, like the sword or the spear, were important insignia of the basilei of the 
Rhomaioi and of the rulers of Orthodox Christian countries, which were under the Byzantine 
cultural influence during the Middle Ages. Therefore, a particular iconographic formula was 
sometimes implemented in visual art, on portraits of Byzantine emperors - divine investiture by 
arms. Byzantine and other medieval rulers were represented in the act of receiving a sword and a 
spear, besides the 
stemma
, from the angels or warrior saints. Such iconography is a very complex 
iconological phenomenon. In this paper, we shall direct attention to its actual origin and basic 
meaning. By origin, it is almost certainly connected with the ancient patterns of the inauguration 
ceremony of the Rhomaean sovereigns. It may be concluded on the basis of certain testimonies that 
the sword was given to the emperor during the proclamation and elevation on a shield by the troops. 
However, like the iconography of the investiture by a crown, the iconography of the investiture by 
arms also did not have the purpose of immortalising a particular event in the emperor’s life. It was not 
an evocation of the memory of a particular victorious battle or war of the basileus, as is commonly 
believed. In the period of the Paleologues, “the living image” of the investiture by the sword was 
renewed each year at Christmas, before the eyes of the subjects, as part of the imperial ceremony 
called 
Prokypsis
. Besides, written sources and preserved representations lead to the unambiguous 
conclusion that the goal of the iconography of the investiture by arms was actually to indicate all the 
emperor’s victories (plural!), great and small, accomplished or potential, i.e. the triumphant nature 
of imperial authority as such.

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