The church in Dolna Kamenitsa Village (1323 – 1330) Costume of a Medieval ruler Despot Mikhail.

The church in Dolna Kamenitsa Village (1323 – 1330)
Costume of a Medieval ruler Despot Mikhail.

The church of the village of Lower Kamenica is an exceptionally rich and preserved frescoes, of which we will look at several different images and their medieval costumes. The first of these is Despot Mikhail.

The fresco on the church wall: 

The picture is clear enough to allow very detailed analysis. 

The Costume in Details: 

Is very beautiful festive outerwear , adorned with thick yellow strips with pearls. Among them are embroidered birds ( eagles probably ), and lilies. Strapped with a few big roller yellow buttons . Bottom of the mural is damaged and can not determine how far the garment, but compared to other similar , for example that of the despot Constantine from London gospel , it can be assumed that as long as mid-calf . Her overall appearance matches the description of the pseudo- coded in the "Book of the ranks " of the Byzantine despot kavadion - /similar to kaftan pattern/ purple in color, lined with golden borders and lined with pearls .

Details of the belt of pictures at my disposal did not differ , but the graphical diagrams to see some research applications.Bottom tunic at first glance appears white , but upon closer inspection it turns red , with two thick yellow ornamental stripes on wrists and sleeves, buttoned with a row of small buttons. Her cleavage is sharp and repeat the upper garment .

The costume scheme:

The scheme of all costume details: 

The royal insignia 

The ensemble is completed by the royal insignia - crown and scepter . Georgi Atanasov sees this crown reflection of Byzantine ceremonial , according to which the king's son , if was proclaimed despot wears a crown with four arched chambers. However, I think the resemblance is not very full - crown is not a type of wreath, and is crowned with " teeth ", obviously a lot more than four . Its decoration includes three major jewels in the front and probably one of the rear, but it is an exaggeration to speak of separate chambers , and their shape is not the same . And finally , on both sides of the face descend pearl pendants ( propenduli ) which are neither mentioned in Cody , nor seen depicted in portraits of the Byzantine despots .

The costume Illustration: 

Despot Mikhail in his ceremonial costume