Here Magnus, who was probably a relative of the reigning emperor, is
depicted on the same sort of backless throne that Christ and Mary were
given. He is presiding over circus games, as is made clear by the
handkerchief he is grasping in his right hand: a wave of the kerchief
signaled the start of the games. With his left hand he holds up an eagle-
topped scepter. The diptych sponsored by Maximianus substituted the
blessing for the signal and Holy Scripture for the scepter. The two
attendants flanking Magnus represent Rome (right) and Constantinople
(left), protecting and honoring him like the background figures that hover
behind Christ and Mary in Maximianus’ diptych.
Maximianus was not a consul; he was a bishop. By commissioning an
ivory diptych, however, he was claiming the honor due a consul. By
commissioning one that presented sacred persons instead of himself, he
was claiming even more: association with the highest sources of holiness.
Note
1 See the mosaic of Justinian at San Vitale at Ravenna (above, Plate 1.12), where Maximianus,
identified by name in large letters above his head, accompanies the emperor. Return to
text.
However, a dramatic shift in ideas about images occurred in the Byzantine
Empire around 680. A cult of images became as important there as the cult of saints.
The change was bluntly summed up by a church council held in Constantinople in
692, which decreed that “in order that what is perfect, even in paintings, may be
portrayed before the eyes of all,... Christ our God should be set forth in images in
human form.”^2 Stories circulated of saintly images that spoke; it became common for
worshippers to bow down to sacred portraits. Images became more than
representations of divine beings; they became—like relics, like reliquaries—containers
of the holy.
These new ideas responded to the crises of the day. In the late seventh century,
Byzantines were confronted by plagues, earthquakes, and (above all) wars against
Slavs, Avars, and Bulgars (who were settling Byzantium’s northern perimeter) and
newly unleashed Islamic forces (which were raiding in Anatolia). How could this
happen to God’s Chosen People (as the Byzantines thought of themselves)? The
