Images of Byzantine emperors served not only to glorify those depicted, but also as media through which subjects articulated their relationships both to individual sovereigns and to the state. The predominant materials, compositional strategies, and social dynamics that constrained such expressions changed substantially over the course of Byzantine history. After the Late Antique system of dedicating monumental bronze statues collapsed in the seventh century, a more flexible set of practices emerged, whose primary expressions were two-dimensional schemata. In the last empire’s last centuries, diplomatic considerations encouraged the production of scenic tableaux, while the closed series of portraits predominated after 1453. The transactional nature of imperial portraiture, the distinction between individual and office, and the representation of emperors as subjects of historical knowledge will repay further research.
