A marble statue from Niš of an early Byzantine imperial woman

Abstract

The paper presents and analyses the only known Early Byzantine marble life-size statue of a secular woman in the Byzantine empire, which was discovered in the Niš Fortress in 1931. She is dressed in an unpretentious but dignified stola with a wide belt under her breasts, necklace around her neck and cloak on her back, status symbols by which prominent persons were recognisable throughout the Middle Ages. Being aware of the fact that it is not possible to be certain of her identity, we have enough reasons to suggest that this is a statue of an unknown imperial woman (the empress or a woman from the imperial environment) who, like emperors, was presented with the cloak. As such, it was a common part of the city forum of Naisos, as well as a worthy successor to the composition of Tetrarchs and the statue of Constantine the Great. Stylistic analysis indicates the still living ancient heritage united with Christian concepts of the dress design and its resemblance to the dresses of women from the Empress Theodora’s entourage date it back to the 6th century and Justinian’s epoch.

Keywords

• imperial woman
• empress
• statue
• stola
• niš
• forum