Icons and Power

The Virgin Mary embodied power rather than maternal tenderness in the Byzantine world. Known as the Mother of God, she became a guarantor of military victory and hence of imperial authority. In this pioneering book, Bissera Pentcheva connects the fusion of Marian cult and imperial rule with the powers assigned to images of this All Holy woman.Drawing upon a wide range of sources and images, from coins and seals to monumental mosaics, Pentcheva demonstrates that a fundamental shift in the Byzantine cult—from relics to icons—took place during the late tenth century. Further, she shows that processions through the city of Constantinople provided the context in which Marian icons emerged as centerpieces of imperial claims to divine protection.Pentcheva breaks new ground, contending that devotion to Marian icons should be considered a much later development than is generally assumed. This new perspective has important implications not only for the history of imperial ritual but also for understanding the creation of new Marian iconography during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.Centered upon fundamental questions of art, religion, and politics, Icons and Power makes a vital contribution to the entire field of medieval studies. It will be of interest as well to all those concerned with the cult of Mary in the Christian traditions of the East and West.

“This is a major work. It provides a much-needed overview of the development of the cult of the Virgin in Byzantium between the fifth and thirteenth centuries. But it is much more than that, too. In its richly detailed account of how icons of the Virgin helped shape Byzantine imperial ideologies, it offers a significant contribution to studies of gender and empire. Its deployment of an unprecedented range of sources, its attentiveness to both major and minor artistic media, and its brilliant descriptions of the role of icons will ensure that it becomes a standard book on the Virgin and her cult in Byzantium.”—David Freedberg, author of The Eye of the Lynx, “The book is well written in good and precise prose and laid out with logical clarity in combination with well-chosen and beautifully produced illustrations on at least two-thirds of the pages. Pentcheva is in command of many texts (chronicles, hymns, sermons, poems) used to deepen her arguments and draws on extensive supplementary material such as coins, seals, ivories, and paintings. . . . [Icons and Power] should be of value to anyone concerned with religious cults, devotion, and the relation of rulers to religious symbols.”—Cecily Hennessy, Catholic Historical Review, “Aimed primarily at Byzantine scholars, this important study will also be of great benefit to medievalists and theologists.”—Susan Martin, The Art Book, “Pentcheva’s book provides a significant response to the issue regarding the relationship of the cult of relics and the cult of images, and offers insight into new iconographic formulae that characterized Marian images of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. As such, this text should be read not only by Byzantinists, but also by scholars focusing on the western tradition.”—Kirstin Noreen, Journal of Church and State, “The volume is a rich dossier of texts and images. The excellent plates illustrate works of art ranging from large mosaics to seals and coins. The captions are highly informative. An extraordinary number of primary sources are included in translation, some of them for the first time in English, and the Greek and Latin originals are always included in the footnotes.”—Nancy P. Ševčenko, Religious Studies Review

Bissera V. Pentcheva is Assistant Professor of Art History at Stanford University .