Speaking for and against the Imperial Portrait Statue in Late Antiquity: Libanius's Orations 19–22 and John Chrysostom's Homilies on the Statues (387 C.E.)

• Published in: Journal of early Christian studies 2023-12, Vol.31 (4), p.543-573
• Main Author: Leatherbury, Sean V
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 4th century; Antiquity; Christianity; Riots; Sculpture; Sermons; Speeches; Tax increases
• ISSN: 1067-6341; 1086-3184; 1086-3184
• DOI: 10.1353/earl.2023.a915034

In the city of Antioch-on-the-Orontes in 387 c.e., statues of the emperor Theodosius I and his family were destroyed by a crowd angered by a recent tax increase, resulting in a series of imperial punishments enacted upon the city. In the months after the event, two prominent residents, the pagan author Libanius and the Christian priest John Chrysostom, wrote (in the case of Libanius) and preached (in the case of Chrysostom) in response to the destruction of the statues and the ensuing punishments. This article focuses on the varied understandings of the power and presence of imperial portraits written into Libanius's and Chrysostom's texts. In contrast with Libanius's traditional understanding of the statue as a surrogate for the venerable subject it represented, Chrysostom instead argues that the living human is superior to the lifeless statue, as we are created "in the image of God" by the supreme artist himself. By marshaling Neoplatonic ideas and pagan critiques of statuary, as well as Christian doctrine, Chrysostom seeks to convince his congregants and later readers still attached to the imperial statue cult that the faithful, rather than graven images, are what matter. Writing in a period in which Christianity was ascendant, and in which some cult statues of the pagan gods were targeted for destruction, Chrysostom's homilies provide a unique window into late fourth-century conceptions of portrait statues, which though different from statues of divine subjects were potentially problematic sites of animation and veneration. Read closely against each other, Libanius's and Chrysostom's texts supplement our understanding of the factors behind the subsequent decline in the production and display of portrait statues, as well as changing ideas about three-dimensional representation in a Christian empire.