From the Golden House to the Golden Triklinos: the Symbolism of Light and Lustre in Late Antique Palace Architecture: lux sacra palatia conplet, lux urbis et orbis

As Liz James has noted in Light and Colour in Byzantine Art (1996), reflected and transmitted light in Byzantine religious art and architecture contributed to, indeed symbolized, the passage between the material and the transcendent world.
This symbolism of light, lustre and colour would seem to have also been a characteristic of secular architecture. The tenth century Byzantine Continuator of the Chronicle of Theophanes refers to the 'splendid halls' erected by the last
Iconoclast emperor, Theophilus (ruled 829-42), the main hall of which was characterised by a golden roof and polished silver and bronze doors, while lustrous marble covered the floor and walls. The courtyards were paved with polished white marble with a golden fountain overlooked by a golden throne. The lustre of such halls continues a tradition that began in the Roman and Late Antique periods, notably in Nero's Golden House, in which the emperor was portrayed in the symbolic role of the conquering sun, in a syncresis of Roman and Persian symbolism and artistic motifs. Such symbolism appears to have continued through the Christian era to the Middle Byzantine period. In this paper, the role of golden lustre in a late sixth-century palace hall, the Chrysotriklinos, or Golden Hall will be examined. This octagonal structure, beyond its function as a “show-palace” was also a bounded territory within and through which the ruler both held and carried out his or her office in the asserted role of the earthly representative of God. This paper will examine the intentionality underlying the design, through the theories of citation and social memory, and propose that the symbolism served to legitimate the ruler, as Paul Magdalino has described, as a “New Constantine”.