From Allegory to Icon:
The Christian Church Triumphant (cat. 16-30)
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Plaque with Saint TheclaSilver Byzantine, 5th century AD Height: 1 1/4 inches (3.2 cm.) |
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The woman stands frontally in the pose of an orant, while two lions sit at her feet. The Greek inscription hagia indicates that she is a saint, although she is not named. There can be no doubt, however, that she is Saint Thecla, who is typically shown standing between the two fierce beasts, which will not harm her.
Thecla was converted to Chritianity by St. Paul but became the subject of persecution when a rejected suitor betrayed her to the Roman authorities. After facing a hoard of wild beasts in the arena at Antioch and surviving, Thecla retired to a hillside above Seleucia, in Isauria where she died. By the end of the fourth century, her tomb at this site became an important pilgrimage destination.
The plaque may have served either as a votive offering to the saint or as a miniature icon, perhaps a souvenir of a visit to her shrine in Syria. Images embossed from the same matrix decorate a silver reliquary box discovered in 1957 in Isauria (in southeast Anatolia) and now in Adana, Turkey. The style of the other images on the reliquary suggest a fifth century date.
Some silver plaques from a sixth century Syrian hoard of silver vessels similarly depict a standing female orant, but not accompanied by lions. Also present in the hoard were plaques embossed with human eyes and the Greek inscription, hyper euches, "in fulfillment of a vow", indicating that they served as votive offerings.
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