ABSTRACT
Lidova demonstrates how in its original setting the image of the Orant Virgin from the oratory of John VII (705–707) in Rome was perceived as a monumental icon. By situating the image of the Orant Virgin into a larger network of early Byzantine monumental icons, this chapter highlights important features of monumental icons and their bodies. These images were often placed within a niche or a border that separated them from other paintings and sometimes created an individual space for the placement of candles, votive gifts, or relics. Similar arrangements indicate that monumental icons were protagonists of special liturgical services.
