The Great Palace mosaics. A contribution to the interpretation of their iconography

Abstract

The mosaics of the Great Palace in Constantinople represent an exceptional work of art from the Late Antique period, unsurpassed in their style and composition features as well as the richness of the prevailing motifs. Thus, many researchers found them intriguing as they faced complex issues of their dating or attribution, stylistic and iconographic analysis, as well as the purpose of the building where the mosaics were located. In this paper, the intention was to point out a new possibility for the interpretation of this corpus of iconography, based on the cosmogony principle with the Earth (Gea) allegory in the central zone, and to give a contribution to its more reliable dating.

Keywords

• great palace
• constantinople
• mosaics
• iconography
• justinian i