Consular diptych

The consular diptych is in the late Antiquité a particular type of Diptyque, this pair of panels connected, generally in Ivoire, wood or metal, decorated of a rich person carved decoration, which could act as shelf to write: it was about an object commemorative of luxury, ordered by the Consul ordinary and distributed to mark its entry in load and to reward the notable ones which had supported its candidature.

The chronology of these diptychs is definitely defined, on the one hand because of decision of Théodose I {{er}} in 384 to hold to the only consuls, except extraordinary imperial exemption, the use of these diptychs, and on the other hand because of the disappearance of the consulate under the reign of Justinien in 541. The large aristocrats and civils servant of the Empire pass however in addition to this prohibition of Théodose, and make carry out diptychs to celebrate less important loads: Symmaque distributes some thus to commemorate the Praetorian plays questoriens then of his/her son, respectively in 393 and 401.

The oldest preserved properly consular diptych, with the treasure of the cathedral of Aoste, is that of Anicius Petronius Probus, consul of Occident in 406: it with the characteristic, in addition to its seniority, to be also the only one to carry the portrait, not of the consul, but of the emperor, Honorius in fact, to which he is dedicated by an inscription full with humility - the consul indicates himself there like the famulus , the slave of the emperor.

Thereafter, the consular diptychs carry systematically either, for most richly decorated among them, a more or less elaborate portrait of the consul, or, for the category of the simplest diptychs, an inscription of dedication in a geometrical and vegetable decoration. It is probable that this second category was produced in more important series, starting from models prepared in advance, and distributed to the characters of lower row, while the most sophisticated diptychs and thus most expensive, were reserved for the first circle of the Roman aristocracy.

The workshops responsible for this production were in the two capitals of the Empire, Rome and Constantinople. But the fall of the Western Empire in 476 is probably responsible for the disappearance of the Western production at the end of the 5th century: all the preserved consular diptychs of the 6th century are originating in Constantinople.

The reason more running of the diptychs constantinopolitains of the 6th century represents the consul, in foot, chairing the consular plays which marked its taking up the duties.

The consular diptychs are by their nature even an invaluable instrument for the prosopography of the late Roman Empire like for the study of the art of this period. They must have survived of big number until the contemporary time their re-use, in many cases, like bindings of ecclesiastical manuscripts at the time medieval.

See too

Related article

  • Diptych

  • Ivory Barberini (without being a consular diptych, this layer shows many common characteristics with them)
  • Liste of the Roman consuls of the Lower Empire

Random links:Credit of exploitation | Shirley Horn | Battle with broad of Jaffna | Editions of the Equators | Zwiesel (top) | Synergisme