Byzantine Cultural Influence in Germany

This image of German Emperor Otto III helps to illustrate the growth of the cultural influence of the Byzantine Empire in Germany. In 972 Theophano and Otto II married and with that marriage a significant amount of cultural influence was brought to the North and West of the Byzantine Empire's borders into Germany. During Theophano's time as the wife of Otto II and her time as regent for her son Otto III she contributed large sums of money to churches and monasteries in her husband's and son's domains. She even sent her daughters to live in nunneries in Maastricht and Quedlinburg. Many of the churches she helped to found were dedicated to saints from her homeland.

The image itself shows many aspects of Byzantine influence. The clothing that the Emperor Otto III wears is the long robes common in Byzantium and not the trousers more commonly worn by Northern Europeans at that time. The style of the image has Byzantine influences in the how the image has a one dimensionality look to the figures within it though it also layers them to create a more two dimensional looking image. The image of the Emperor sitting on his throne and or surrounded by people paying homage to him is common in Byzantine art and is found in other images. Examples of this include mosaic panels of Justinian and his wife Theodora being surrounded by priests, soldiers, and their attendants in the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna and another mosaic in the Hagia Sofia that shows the Byzantine Empress Zoe and her husband Constantine IX paying homage to Jesus in a similar way that a ruler would be depicted.    


Sources

Bennett, Judith. Medieval Europe: A Short History. McGraw-Hill, 2011.

Browning, Robert. The Byzantine Empire. The Catholic University of America Press, 1992.

Herrin, Judith. Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire. Princeton University Press, 2009.

Obolensky, Dimitri. The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe, 500-1453. Praeger Publishers, 1971.