Written in Stone and Wrapped in Silk: Aesthetics of Illusion and Authenticity in Ottonian Legal Documents

This article investigates the aesthetic interplay between illusion and authenticity that defines the Privilegium Ottonianum (962) and the marriage charter of Empress Theophanu (972). The masterfully painted scrolls dissolve the material quality of colorless parchment into purple-dyed silk and porphyry. I claim that this media transfer is indebted to a conscious artistic and intellectual play with illusion as a means of authentication. The documents’ powerful visuality artfully deceives the viewer’s eyes and at the same time provides them with legal authority. The conceptual thinking behind these objects draws on practices in monastic scriptoria where mimetic strategies were used to blur the material spheres of text and image in the context of the sacred book. It also connects with traditions of Byzantine imperial chanceries and the cultural heritage of ancient and Carolingian Rome.