Pope Sylvester from the St. Stephen Church in Nessebar
Pope Sylvester from the St. Stephen Church in Nessebar

Summary/Abstract: In the Metropolitan Church of Nessebar, in the 16th-century wall paintings, Pope Sylvester is depicted in the south nave between St. Ignatius Theophoros and Sts. Constantine and Helena. The Roman bishop is represented with a triregnum, an insignia that links him to the so-called Donatio Constantini, whose text appears in the 8th century. The paper examines the development of possible image narrative structures, on the one hand, through the place where the bishop and the imperial couple are depicted, creating a compositional unity, and, on the other, in the derivation of historical connections through the symbol of the papal regalia between the Roman bishop and the emperor. Along with this, questions, concerning the transfer of the triregnum as an artistic element through possible patterns of transfers in the Balkan art of the 16th century, are also raised.

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