La majesté sacrée du roi : images du souverain carolingien

The Sacred Majesty of the King : Images of a carolingian Sovereign. The body of works examined consists of six representations of a sovereign in majesty (King or Emperor) from the Carolingian period, dated approximately between 840 and 875. The article’s aim is to define formal and iconographical characteristics associated with the idea of royal majesty in these manuscript images. It is shown that royal majesty is not defined by one element alone but by a combination of several elements. Its image is compared with other types of majesty, particularly those of Christ and David. The evolution of religious ideology in the ninth century forbades the assimilation of a sovereign’s majesty with divine majesty. The author therefore introduces the notion of « intermediary majesty » in order to account for the particular traits of the image of the Carolingian King, who remains a sacred personage in a sacred space (etymologically « forbidden »), while playing the role of an intermediary between God and the people.Aubert Dominique. La majesté sacrée du roi : images du souverain carolingien. In: Histoire de l'art, N°5-6, 1989. Iconographie. pp. 23-36