The Perfume Burner of the Treasury of San Marco in the Context of Komnenian Constantinople
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Elena De Zordi
Abstract
The perfume burner from the Treasury of San Marco in Venice has been subject to a range of different interpretations over the years. This study builds upon the solid links established by previous scholarship with the cultural environment of the Constantinopolitan court in the time of Manuel I Komnenos (r. 1145- 1180). The aim is to further clarify certain aspects of the iconographic programme by referencing a series of rhetorical and cultural conventions widespread among the learned élites of the period. In this sense, the comparison with a group of silver dinnerware and the previous hypotheses proposed for interpreting its iconography prove fundamental in determining that the obscurity and ambiguity of the depictions were sought after and appreciated by the Middle Byzantine public.
© 2025 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Inhalt
- Siglenverzeichnis
- I. ABTEILUNG
- “Epigramma (Inscription) for a Woman Who is in Labour but Cannot Give Birth”: A Re-writing of a Birthing Amulet
- Bolesław the Brave of Poland’s Embassy to Byzantium in 1018: Power, Diplomacy, and Symbolism at the Turn of the First Millennium
- The Perfume Burner of the Treasury of San Marco in the Context of Komnenian Constantinople
- The Aims of Byzantine Foreign Policy in Armenia (685 – 705): A New Approach
- Retrieving Nikephoros Blemmydes’ Library: Some Considerations on Epitome physica, Ch. 31 (On Void)
- II. ABTEILUNG
- Dragoljub Marjanovic, Creating Memories in Late 8th-century Byzantium: The Short History of Nikephoros of Constantinople
- Nachrichten
- Totentafel und Nachrufe
- Tafelanhang
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelei
- Inhalt
- Siglenverzeichnis
- I. ABTEILUNG
- “Epigramma (Inscription) for a Woman Who is in Labour but Cannot Give Birth”: A Re-writing of a Birthing Amulet
- Bolesław the Brave of Poland’s Embassy to Byzantium in 1018: Power, Diplomacy, and Symbolism at the Turn of the First Millennium
- The Perfume Burner of the Treasury of San Marco in the Context of Komnenian Constantinople
- The Aims of Byzantine Foreign Policy in Armenia (685 – 705): A New Approach
- Retrieving Nikephoros Blemmydes’ Library: Some Considerations on Epitome physica, Ch. 31 (On Void)
- II. ABTEILUNG
- Dragoljub Marjanovic, Creating Memories in Late 8th-century Byzantium: The Short History of Nikephoros of Constantinople
- Nachrichten
- Totentafel und Nachrufe
- Tafelanhang
