Imperial Laskarid Imagery from Exile

This chapter reveals how Laskarid rulers created and communicated their imperial image on bronze, silver, and gold coinage, and in lead and gold signature seals. Much of their imagery was retrospective, drawing on well-known icons once displayed in public areas of the lost capital. One icon in particular, depicting Christ Chalkites, appeared widely on Laskarid coins and seals between 1204 and 1261, not appearing again until 1315 in the narthex of the famed Church of Christ in the Chora in Constantinople, a church considered to be the epitome of the artistic and architectural innovations of the Palaiologan Renaissance. It was renovated by one of Andronikos II’s most important court officials, Theodore Metochites, originally from Nicaea and whom Andronikos II met during his 1290−1293 sojourn and subsequently elevated to the high court office of Grand Logothete. The importance of this icon in the history of Iconoclasm is resurrected with Andronikos II’s work to heal factions resulting from the Arsenite Schism.