Visual Traditions in the Formation of the Iconographic Types of the Investiture and Triumph of Patriarch Joseph

Abstract

The story of the patriarch Joseph is a very recurring theme in medieval visual artistic Christian tradition. Joseph, Jacob’s beloved son, is a prefiguration of Christ. The story in Genesis 41, 37–44 fosters the creation of two iconographic types: Joseph’s investiture and Joseph on the Pharaoh’s chariot. The narrative places patriarch Joseph in the court of the Pharaoh of Egypt. However, Christian visuality was created according to the iconic criteria for the representation of political power, contemporary to the configuration of both iconographic types. The aim of this paper is to study the visual mechanisms used in the iconic configuration of the iconographic types of Joseph’s investiture and Joseph on the Pharaoh’s chariot, when the monarch bestows upon Joseph the privilege of his trust. The iconographic analysis of some early and medieval examples of the artistic visuality of Joseph’s story, in Eastern and Western traditions, confirms that they refer back to late ancient and medieval Byzantine tradition. Likewise, it was detected that the resources used in the visual configuration of both iconographic types are linked to the conventionalised mechanisms of the symbolic construction of power.