Quaderni di Venezia Arti

Series | Quaderni di Venezia Arti
Edited book | A Driving Force
Chapter | Beyond the Image of Submission

Beyond the Image of Submission

At the Origin of the Distorted Portrait of the Byzantine Emperor John V Palaiologos (r. 1354-91) in the Latin West

Abstract

This article explores the origin of the distorted image of the Byzantine emperor John V Palaiologos (r. 1354-91) in the Latin West. It opens with an examination of a submissive iconographic representation of John V in a seventeenth/eighteenth-century Venetian painting. The second section reflects on the initial stages of negative deformation that this emperor’s portrait underwent in historiography. The rationale behind these distortions seems to be closely linked to John V’s adherence to, then rejection of the Latin faith: in 1369, he converted to Latin Christianity, but over time his conversion came to be no longer considered valid.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: Sept. 17, 2023 | Accepted: Oct. 30, 2023 | Published Dec. 22, 2023 | Language: en

Keywords Distorted portraitByzantine EmpireHistoriographical biasReligious submissionByzantine empireLatin faithJohn V Palaiologos


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