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Secondary sourcePainting

Zonaras Chronicle Portrait Folio

Unknown Byzantine scribes

A page from a Byzantine illuminated manuscript showing painted portraits of nine emperors, including Constantine XI, each with a halo and jeweled crown.

This manuscript page contains one of the best-known near-contemporary painted portraits of Constantine XI.

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Manuscript page with nine painted portraits of Byzantine emperors in three rows of three, each within a gold halo and wearing jeweled crowns and jeweled collars. Greek inscriptions appear above, between, and below the portraits.
Folio 294v, Zonaras codex (Mutinensis gr. 122), Biblioteca Estense.

About this source

What it is

This is a page (folio 294v) from a richly illustrated Byzantine manuscript known as the Zonaras codex, held in the Biblioteca Estense. Unknown Byzantine scribes and painters created nine small portraits of emperors, arranged in three rows, each framed by a gold halo and wearing jeweled crowns and collars.

Why it matters

This manuscript gives one of the best surviving painted likenesses of Constantine XI from near his own lifetime, showing him with a rounded beard that sets him apart from his bearded relatives in the same family line, including Andronikos III, John V, John VIII, and Constantine the Great. It helps historians imagine how the last Byzantine emperors wanted to be remembered, connected visually to earlier emperors of Rome and Byzantium.

Look closer

  • Why might the artist give each emperor a halo and crown, even those who ruled briefly?
  • What does placing Constantine XI next to Constantine the Great suggest about how Byzantines saw their history?
  • What is missing from a painted portrait like this that a photograph might show us today?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Constantine XI Palaiologos on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Portrait of Constantine XI Palaiologos in the Mutinensis gr. 122 Codex

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Gold Seal of Constantine XI for Ragusa

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Signature of Constantine XI Palaiologos

Constantine XI Palaiologos

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