Beyond the Image of Submission
At the Origin of the Distorted Portrait of the Byzantine Emperor John V Palaiologos (r. 1354-91) in the Latin West
abstract
This article explores the origin of the distorted image of the Byzantine emperor John V Palaiologos (r. 1354-91) in the Latin West. It opens with an examination of a submissive iconographic representation of John V in a seventeenth/eighteenth-century Venetian painting. The second section reflects on the initial stages of negative deformation that this emperor’s portrait underwent in historiography. The rationale behind these distortions seems to be closely linked to John V’s adherence to, then rejection of the Latin faith: in 1369, he converted to Latin Christianity, but over time his conversion came to be no longer considered valid.
Keywords: Byzantine empire • Historiographical bias • John V Palaiologos • Distorted portrait • Byzantine Empire • Latin faith • Religious submission