Enthronement of the invisible. Understanding the origin and evolution of the iconography of empty thrones and hetoimasia in the late antique period

Abstract

The motif of hetoimasia is one of the most widespread and most complex in medieval iconography, and it has its roots in the Graeco-Roman and Jewish empty thrones of an invisible or absent deity. It gradually developed during the Late Antique period, and experienced its full flourishing in the Middle Ages. It has been appearing in the scenes of the Last Judgment since the eleventh century and, as such, inherits an eschatological connotation (Ps. 9: 7-8). Besides a survey of the earlier ways of percieving this problem, this paper offers alternative possibilities for interpreting the origin and development of the motifs of empty thrones and hetoimasia in Late Antiquity.