A Post-Byzantine Icon in the Bedchamber of the Medici Heir: Questions of Authenticity, Replication, and Substitution in Early Antiquarianism

Although the role of the Medici as collectors of antiquities has long been recognised, their interest in medieval objects has received less attention. Drawing primarily on the evidence provided by household inventories, this article highlights the family’s assembly of what was in the late fifteenth century the largest European collection of Byzantine and post-Byzantine icons in private hands. A study of these icons’ acquisition and display – and of their influence on new artworks – reveals their uniquely important position at the intersection of religious piety and antiquarian interests. The Medici’s engagement with icons (especially carved and mosaic pieces) shaped ideas about authenticity, replication, and substitution crucial to early modern interpretations of both historicity and eternity. As an act of appropriation, that engagement also alienated the descendants of the icons’ creators from their roots. The translation of these supernatural talismans into a foreign context contributed to the oppression of vulnerable communities.