For over a century the "portrait" of the Byzantine Emperor featured on
two marble tondi in Venice and Washington, D.C., has been posing a
challenge to scholars with its enigmatic silence: who is or are the
Emperor depicted with his/their insignia and sumptuous attire? When and
where were the two tondi created? Why were they brought to Venice, and
why was one eventually transferred to Germany and then the United
States? The essays collected in this volume address the numerous
problems raised by these remarkable examples of official art by using a
range of different methodologies, in an attempt to provide a new
framework for their interpretation and new hypotheses supported by fresh
data.