Surrounded by Ancestors

The ruling dynasties quite literally surrounded themselves with their ancestors (real ones, as well as imaginary ones), creating galleries of their predecessors or artifacts, such as scrolls with genealogical diagrams. A lineage represented in such a manner could then be displayed not only for the royal family but also for their courtiers and foreign diplomats, reminding everyone of the position of the depicted dynasty in contemporary political struggles and in the history of Christianity. This argument is underlined by the fact that within the portrayal of the family, the prophecies of the en... Mehr ...