Epigrams on Works of Art 177when the epigrams and the pictures were produced, young Constantine was the
ruling emperor: Kznstant¦noß g\ Ín, äll2 to¦ß p1lai crönoiß / leyk‰ß cröaß
t6qrippon ×lkzn eJströózß (“This was Constantine, but in the old days, when
he skilfully drove the four-horse chariot of the Whites”). It cannot be ruled out,
however, that this is simply a clumsy expression and that the poet with the
connective äll2 only wanted to stress that Constantine lived very long ago:
“This was Constantine in the days of yore, when he, etc”.
It may perhaps seem somewhat peculiar that the tenth-century decoration
of the parakyptikön was inspired by late antique poetry. It is well known that
some forms of Byzantine art, such as classicizing miniatures in illuminated
manuscripts, go back to Hellenistic, early Roman or late antique works of art^70.
And some of these ancient models, in turn, derive their inspiration from
literature: Homer, Euripides, Menander, and, in late antiquity, Nonnos. But
did ancient and late antique secular literature directly influence Byzantine
art? The wall paintings in the early eleventh-century monastery of Eski
Gümüš provide an interesting parallel to the decoration of the imperial gallery.
In a rock-cut chamber above the narthex we find a few paintings depicting
Aesopic fables with tituli in dodecasyllabic verse^71. As this “Aesopic” decora-
tion is without parallel both in Antiquity and in Byzantium, there is no need
to assume in the Weitzmannian mould that the painter imitated some late
antique model which -alas!- no longer exists. The painter must have directly
drawn his inspiration from the reading of the fables themselves. Likewise, the
poet of APl 380–387 came up with the idea of the iconographic programme
after having read the late antique epigrams in the anthology of Cephalas.
However, there is still one essential question that needs to be addressed:
why was the imperial loge adorned with pictures of late antique charioteers in
the early tenth century? First of all, this is undoubtedly related to the classi-
cizing movement of the time, of which the anthology of Cephalas forms a
splendid example. Given the large number of copies of Cephalas’ anthology in
circulation in the first half of the tenth century, ancient and late antique
epigrams must have been much in vogue at the time. Secondly, as noted by
many scholars, even at the peak of the classicizing movement the Byzantines
do not to appear to be much interested in the classical legacy itself, but rather
in its shadowy reflections in late antique art and literature. The Byzantines see
themselves as heirs to the christianized Roman empire. And their emperors see
(^70) The Paris Psalter, the Bible of Niketas, evangelists looking like ancient philosophers,
ivories depicting putti, silver plates with dionysiac scenes, etc., etc. – in short, all the
imitations of classical art, on which the concept of the so-called Macedonian Renaissance
is based.
(^71) See M. GOUGH, Anatolian Studies 15 (1965) 162–164. See also chapter 8, p. 259.