Yrene emperire de romme · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Yrene emperire de romme
Subject: Empress Irene; Constantine VI; Important Women; Famous Women
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: Athens; Ancient Greece; Byzantium; Eastern Roman Empire
Description: This image appears at the beginning of the chapter that treats Irene, the Eastern Roman Empress and mother of Constantine VI. Empress Irene was the regent to Constantine when her husband Leo had died. Constantine grew up and asserted that the throne was his and his alone. Irene attempted to get the throne back from her son and had him imprisoned. When he was freed, he sent her into a luxurious exile. When he exiled his mother, he went to war with the Bulgarians as they were trying to replace him as emperor with a man named Nicephorus. To exact his revenge on this Nicephorus, he had the tongues of Nicephorus’s brothers torn out and eyes gouged. This image depicts two men, one getting his tongue cut out and the other getting his eyes gouged with a knife.
Image Creator: Anonymous (Illuminator)
Type: Text; Illumination
Identifier: mta:25535
Language: frm
Source Name: De la louenge et vertu des nobles et cleres dames [Of praise and virtue of the noble and clergy women]
Parent Collection: 1493 Paris; 1493 Paris
Image: mta_25535_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Empress Irene; Constantine VI; Important Women; Famous Women