Мозаїка з імператором Костянтином IV Погонатом: ківорій та завіси
Mosaic with the Emperor Constantine IV Pogonatus: ciborium and veils

Summary/Abstract: Purpose of the article. Identify the role of architectural and textile framing around the portrait of Emperor Constantine IV as artistic, symbolic, and traditional cultural objects. To analyze whether the images of architectural details and fabrics had real prototypes in the ceremony of the emperor giving the gifts and the church life of that time, or the objects depicted on mosaics were only decorative objects that had no connection with the rite and the meaning of the image. The methodology of the study includes formal, comparative, historical, iconographic and semiotic methods. The scientific novelty of the work is a new disclosure of the role of architectural and textile objects as images that not only contributed to the stability and decorativeness of the ancient compositions but also reflected real historical artifacts of church life and the imperial ritual of bringing the gifts to the church. These objects also had a tremendous semiotic meaning as symbolic means, indicating: 1) a special sacred place where the action takes place - directly at the altar; 2) the highest social status of the imperial gift that takes place in the image; 3) the union of the work of secular authority with the priesthood’s service of God, through which the fullness of the Church as the Body of Christ formed in the sense of the Christian community of the priesthood and believers. Conclusions. Real objects are used as a composite frame on the portrait of Constantine IV Pogonatus - ciborium and curtains that give us information about the historical ritual and its image, as well as the symbols of bringing of the most critical imperial gift that was a symbol of the combination of the secular and priesthood parts of the church society into a single Christian community - the Church as the Body of Christ. The tradition was started at the Cathedral of St. Sophia of Constantinople.

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