Barberini ivory
It is generally dated from the first half of the 6th century and is attributed to an imperial workshop in Constantinople, while the emperor is usually identified as Justinian, or possibly Anastasius I or Zeno.
Above, Christ, with a fashionable curled hair-style, is flanked by two more angels in the style of pagan victory figures; he reigns above, while the emperor represents him below on earth.
In the bottom panel barbarians from West (left, in trousers) and East (right, with ivory tusks, a tiger and a small elephant) bring tribute, which includes wild animals.
[clarification needed] The reverse of the object is flat and smooth, without the depression for wax which would be found on a consular diptych, which would be used as a writing tablet.
Peiresc mentions it specifically in a letter to his friend Palamède de Vallavez, dated 29 October 1625: ...[the cardinal] was pleased to see an ancient ivory bas-relief which I recovered a little earlier, where is represented the emperor Heraclius on horseback, with borders bearing a cross and his son Constantine carrying a Victory and many captive provinces beneath his feet, like that of the Grand 'Camayeul' of Tiberius.
It introduces a new cosmic hierarchy into the representation of the triumph of the Roman Empire and is thus a highly political work designed to serve as imperial propaganda.
Ernst Kitzinger noted as "remarkable... the amount of lively activity with which the central relief is packed", in contrast to the static figures at the centre of most diptychs.
This type of statuette personification is also one of the links to the iconography of the triumphant emperor, found on several coins (e.g. the reverse of the solidus of Constantine II, right) but also in sculpture (e.g. the scene of sacrifice on the arch of Galerius) and on some consular diptychs.
The emperor has a bowl or archivolt haircut, of the sort where the fringe describes an arched circle around his face, similar to that worn by Constantine, and wears a crown studded with pearls, of which four survive.
His facial features are oval in form and quite heavy, notably the eyelids and the nose, but give a cheerful character to the imperial portrait.
The relief of this central motif was particularly accentuated – the Victory, the lance, and to a lesser extent the heads of the emperor and of his horse are all sculpted very nearly in the round.
The man stands in an architectural scheme formed of two columns supporting Corinthian capitals and of a tessellated pattern (possibly opus sectile) evoking a room in an imperial palace.
Equally, where Caesar Gallus holds a comparable statuette of victory in his image on the Calendar of 354, he wears civil and not military clothing.
[7] The bottom panel forms a sort of frieze decorated by a double procession of barbarians and animals converging on a central figure of Victory.
To the left, two bearded figures are of the same type as the barbarian in the central panel, wearing short tunics, Phrygian caps and closed boots.
This motif of barbarians rendering homage to the emperor is common in Roman and Byzantine bas-reliefs – here, it is the aurum coronarium, the presenting of tribute.
[8] It can also be found in Constantinople, for example on the base of the column of Arcadius (in a composition comparable to that on the Barberini ivory) or on the obelisk of Theodosius in the hippodrome (shown left).
On the obelisk of Theodosius ten barbarians, again divided into two groups, converge on the central figure of the emperor, in this example enthroned in majesty in an imperial box surrounded by other augusti.
Anastasius's reign was marked by a difficult war against the Sassanid Persians from 502 to 505, ended by a peace in 506, which restored the status quo but which could be presented in Constantinople as a triumph after initial Roman setbacks.
It is in fact closer to known portraits of Constantine, which has allowed certain historians to identify him with that emperor, including Barberini himself, as a contemporary catalogue entry for it shows (see above).
This interpretation also owes something to the modern inscription on the right-hand replacement panel, in which it is easy to recognise the emperor's name, or at least so long as it does not refer to Constans or Constantius II instead.
The lower-relief style of the secondary panels, and notably the purely graphic and unplastic rendering of clothing, accommodates a later dating of the work to around the middle of the 6th century.
This cross could also be shown within a crown carried by two angels, the best-known motif of the Theodosian era – besides ivories such as that at Murano, it also figures on the bas-reliefs of the column of Arcadius and the decoration of the sarcophagus of Sarigüzel.
A drawing by Nymphirios (a member of the entourage of Cyriac of Ancona) now in the library of the University of Budapest[14] shows the statue which surmounted the column raised by Justinian in 543/4 in the Augustaion in Constantinople and described at length by Procopius of Caesarea in his Edifices (I, 2, 5).
According to the epigram which was its dedicatory inscription, conserved in the Anthology of Planudes[15] and confirmed by Procopius's account, the statue was set up so as to face east, towards the Persians, as a sign of the emperor threatening them.
[17] The medal in question is a gold one weighing 36 solidi (164g), discovered in 1751 and now lost after being stolen from the Cabinet des Médailles (now part of the BNF) in 1831, although an electrotype of it survives.
A star is shown on the field, the exergue inscription gives the mark CONOB (indicating a mint in Constantinople) and the legend reads Salus et Gloria Romanorum (Safety and Glory of the Romans).
The inscription certainly suggests a monumental composition which cannot fail to evoke the central motif of the Barberini ivory: Behold, prince [and] exterminator of the Medes, the offerings brought to you by Eustathios, at the same time father and son of the Rome which you hold: a horse rearing over a Victory, a second Victory who crowns you and you yourself astride this horse, fast as the wind.
