This exciting, fully Open Access collection, brings together a very international group of scholars to examine the image of rulers in the medieval Mediterranean. Collectively, the chapters in the book demonstrate the vital importance of the ruler’s image as a means of communicating power, authority, and legitimacy. However, as the editors note in the introduction, these images were not necessarily about communicating the individual identity of a given ruler or offering a realistic portrait. Indeed, they question the definition of a portrait itself in the Middle Ages, arguing that “its modern meaning--a self-contained, individualized, and true-to-life representation of a single person--was alien to medieval cultures and, even in Western Europe, did not become commonplace earlier than the late 14th century” (7). Instead, they believe that it is better to conceptualize these representations as “royal images” proposing a shift “from images as conveyors of presence to bodies as visual indicators of kingship” (20). This approach is applied to a wide range of examples across the volume, from coins and seals, manuscript illuminations, effigies, and even to the structure and decoration of palaces. As many of the contributors are art historians, there is a deep analysis of this visual and material culture, and the collection is richly illustrated with full colour plates for each of the fourteen case studies.
The collection is arranged geographically, moving from Armenia in the eastern Mediterranean to Iberia in the West. Perhaps the principal strength of the volume is the sheer diversity of the case studies in terms of the kingdoms, royal figures, and materials analysed. The volume brings more well-known figures such as Byzantine emperors and the Capetian kings of France together with rulers from Serbia, Hungary, Sicily, León, and Armenian Cilicia (Cilla), among others. Armenian Cilicia, an area which has not received a great deal of attention in Anglophone scholarship, is focus of the first three chapters of the collection, written by Gohar Grigoryan Savary, Ioanna Rapti, and Edda Vardanyan respectively. All three chapters look at the ways in which representations of rulers and their ancestors, coronation ceremonies, and ideals of rulership in thirteenth-century manuscripts underpinned the legitimacy and authority of the royal family. Taken together, this sustained focus on the region in the thirteenth century offers the reader a deep understanding of the medieval kingdom including key rulers, such as Lewon II (r. 1270-1289) and key sources such as the Queen Keṙan Gospels. However, given the fact that all three chapters are deeply linked in terms of subject area and share key protagonists, it is surprising that the authors make no reference to each other’s work; this would help not only for cohesion but to build on, rather than repeat, the information covered in the other chapters. It may be that given the Open Access format, where chapters can be individually downloaded, the authors did not want to presume that the reader would have read the related chapters. This is a missed opportunity, however, as this cross-referencing would only encourage a reader to engage with more of the collection, and certainly anyone interested in medieval Armenian Cilicia would want to read all three of these excellent studies.
Chapter 4, by Manuela Studer-Karlen, examines “The Emperor’s Image in Byzantium,” noting how his image acted as “a substitute for the institution” (141), such as authenticating coins with his presence. The author charts changes in imperial iconography, noting the ways in which the relationship between Christ and the emperor was depicted and demonstrating how the emperor’s image reflected Byzantine virtues of rulership. The imagery of Byzantine emperors had a profound influence on monarchies across Europe, particularly in eastern and central Europe and in the Balkan region. The following chapter by Branislav Cvetković demonstrates how the rulers of medieval Serbia were equally influenced by Byzantine models and those of Western monarchs, particularly in the emphasis on sainted kings and their cults.
Chapters 6 and 7 take the reader to Naples and Sicily to examine the representations of Frederick III of Aragon, king of Sicily, and Robert of Anjou (“Robert the Wise”) of Naples. Mirko Vagnoni’s study of Frederick III surveys four surviving examples of the king’s image before surmising that “it does not seem that Frederick III paid particular attention to the dissemination of his image to Sicilian society” (236). In contrast, Nicolas Bock takes a very focused approach, examining the representation of Robert of Anjou by one particular painter, Simone Martini. This intensive approach makes this chapter as much about Martini’s stylistic evolution as much as the development of Angevin royal portraiture, but it is an interesting read nonetheless. The Angevin theme continues in chapter 8 by Vinni Lucherini, moving northward to the dynasty’s Hungarian domains. Lucherini examines the Chronicon Pictum (c. 1358), a visual representation of all the kings of Hungary up to the reign of Charles I of Anjou, which stressed the continuity of royal power and the legitimacy of the new dynasty. The author compares these images with a similar series in alabaster of the counts of Barcelona and kings of Aragon commissioned by Pere IV “the Ceremonious” and offers an extended consideration of the depiction of the Capetian kings of France in effigies and statues. This segues beautifully into chapter 9 by Lucinia Speciale who examines the origins of an ivory chess set which was part of the treasury of Saint-Denis for centuries and was said to have belonged to Charlemagne. She argues that it may actually have come to France much later via Charles of Anjou and could even be a set originally commissioned for the consecration of Roger II of Sicily. Elodie Leschot’s contribution, which follows, returns to Saint-Denis to examine the jamb figures on the royal portals there, in comparison to those at Étampes and Chartres. This picks up the comment made earlier by Lucherini that the French had an “obsession with effigies of kings” (306)--Leschot explains the rationale behind this “obsession,” noting that “The use of a new broadcast medium, namely monumental sculpture, brought such images to a vast audience of ordinary people, thereby informing the daily experience of an entire society. This catalysed an unprecedented change in the way monarchy was perceived” (382).
The final three chapters shift the focus to Iberia--chapters 12 and 13, written by Sofia Fernández Pozzo and Marta Serrano-Coll, respectively--both look specifically at the kingdom of Aragon. Fernández Pozzo’s chapter looks at two illuminated manuscripts, the Liber Feudorum Maior and Liber Feudorum Ceritanie. Links can be drawn here to the themes in other studies in the volume which note how the visual images of rulers grouped with their predecessors or in this case, their successors, confers legitimacy and continuity. While Serrano-Coll also considers manuscript illuminations in the Four Great Catalan Chronicles in her study of Jaime II of Aragon, she casts a wider iconographical net, considering seals, tomb effigies, and royal residences, along with inventories of the rich goods within them. The final chapter, by Juan Carlos Ruiz Souza, picks up on architecture, examining how the royal image and power was displayed in palaces. Here the influence comes not from Byzantium but from Islamic models from Al-Andalus--Ruiz Souza particularly highlights the development of Pedro I of Castile and his family on the Alcazars of Seville and Carmona and the Clarissan convent-palaces of Tordesillas and Astudillo.
This overview of the collection demonstrates the artful structure of the papers by the editors who arranged them in a sequence which is both logical in terms of geography and dynastic and thematic connections. This could only be improved by a more conscious cross-referencing on the part of the authors to highlight these linkages and build on them, encouraging readers to work their way through the entire volume and drawing the threads of ideas and arguments across the various case studies. While all of the chapters could stand alone if the reader only dipped into the topics which intersected most closely with their research area, the volume has much to offer the reader if read in its entirety. Taken together, this collection highlights the theme foregrounded in the introduction that resonates from one end of the Mediterranean to the other and across all of the various media that the authors used in their analysis: that the royal image is more about communicating power than the individual identity of the ruler. Ultimately however, there are two underlying questions one could ask of all of these examples: to whom exactly were these royal images speaking, and what impact did they have on how that audience viewed the rulers and the monarchy? While this is hard to pin down securely, all of the authors do an excellent job of unpicking the meanings and messages in the royal images in their case studies and underlining the vital importance of image crafting in the exercise of royal power.