Portrait of the Empress Irene Dukaina Presented in Contemporary Sources
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| Year of publication | 2012 |
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| Description | A portrait of the Byzantine empress Irene Dukaina, wife of Alexios Comnenos, the founder of the Comnenian dynasty, presented both by narrative sources and by artifacts gives quite incongruous impression. When comparing several documents or information mentioned within one source, inconsistent facts appear, e.g. when Irene, in some other place described as a modest and shy woman, accompanies her husband to war. To create a portrait of this empress, personal information related directly to Irene Dukaina must be firstly separated from the topoi describing high-ranking women of the twelfth century. In the resulting descriptions, whether favorable to Irene (Anna Comnena, Nikeforos Bryennios), impartial (Georgios Tornikes), or inimical (Ioannes Zonaras), both her character (shy, gloomy, or decisive) and her physiognomy (dark skin, undistinguished appearance, and being behind the contemporary ideal of beauty) become more apparent. The aim of this contribution is to critically examine each portrayal component, to separate the topoi from the reality and, with the aid of artifacts, to try to reconstruct the realistic portrait of the empress. |