Style
The dish is a leading example of the style of the so-called "Theodosian Reniassance", along with the base of the Obelisk of Theodosius in Istanbul and the fragments surviving of his triumphal column there. This is the first stylistic phase that can be clearly linked with the new capital of Constantinople, and according to Ernst Kitzinger: "One senses that some strong artistic personality or personalities who set the tone and aesthetic standards were active at the centre of political power, stamping the monuments of this period with an unmistakable imprint".
Despite limitations in terms of anatomical correctness, and a "soft, rubbery quality" in the nude bodies, the style has "an element of studied classicism" as well as "an insistence on clear, continuous and simplified outline, on neatness and regularity" in the figure of Terra/Tellus, so that "Classicist form is oddly paired with linear abstract order", the latter more prominent in the upper zone, to lend an air of authority and "timelessness and absolute stability" to the imperial figures that was not required below.
Read more about this topic: Missorium Of Theodosius I
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