The Gunther’s Shroud: A Masterpiece of 10th-Century Byzantine Silk Tapestry

The Gunther’s shroud (Guntertuch in German) is a Byzantine silk tapestry representing the triumphal return of a Byzantine Emperor from a victorious campaign. Bishop Gunther von Bamberg either purchased it or received it as a gift in Constantinople, leading to the shrould landing in german lands.

Gunther von Bamberg: A vivid 11th-century character

Gunther was born between 1025 and 1030 into a noble family and pursued an ecclesiastical career. He was part of the dignitaries of the German imperial court and was appointed chancellor of Italy in 1054. He was close to Pope Victor II and Empress Dowager Agnes of Poitou, who supported his election as bishop of Bamberg, an important city in Franconia, in 1057.

A contemporary described him as so idle and fat that he needed to be rolled out of bed by mechanical means. He was apparently more interested in secular matters than in ecclesiastical ones and led a lavish lifestyle.

Nonetheless, he decided to participate in the Great German Pilgrimage in 1064. During this journey, he visited Constantinople and acquired a piece of silk. He then continued to Jerusalem, despite being attacked by bandits attracted by his ostentatious appearance. He managed to reach the holy sites, but on his way back, he passed away in July 1065 in modern Hungary, at a relatively young age.

His corpse was brought back to the German lands and buried in Bamberg Cathedral, under the altar of Saint Gertrude, wrapped in the cloth. In the 13th century, when the cathedral was rebuilt, his remains were transferred and reburied in the east choir. In 1830, the cathedral underwent extensive restoration work. His grave was again opened, leading to the rediscovery of the shroud. Today, it is exhibited in the Diocesan Museum of Bamberg.

A lavish Byzantine silk cloth.

Woven using the tapestry technique, it measures 218 cm high and 211 cm wide. It shows a Byzantine Emperor riding a white horse with the regalia and carrying a miniature labarum in his right hand. He is surrounded by two feminine figures, thought to be Tyche, female personifications of a city’s fortune, as they wear mural crowns. The right one probably presents a crown, while the left one holds a toupha, a headgear reserved for triumphs. They are dressed in ankle-long yellow undergarments with colored transparent over-tunics. They go barefoot, a convention typical for slaves, symbolizing their submission to the emperor, or representing their divinity as goddesses of fortune. The characters are shown on a patterned background.

Unfortunately, the central part of the tapestry where the emperor stands is partly damaged, making the identification of the character controversial.

The representation of emperor John I Tzimiskes.

Modern scholars concluded that the cloth depicts Emperor John I Tzimiskes (969-976). John I came to power after murdering his uncle with his own hands, possibly with the support of the infamous Empress Theophano. Despite this violent rise to power, he was a successful emperor. The tapestry likely shows his triumphal return in 971 from his campaign against the Rus’, who had invaded and occupied Bulgaria.

Leo the Deacon, a contemporary historian, reports that John I rode a white horse during his triumphal procession, following a wagon carrying an icon of the Virgin Mary and the Bulgarian regalia he had seized. The captive Bulgarian Tsar Boris II and his family followed him. John Skylitzes, who later wrote about the same event, provides some different details about the procession, but both sources agree on the white horse and the significance of two Bulgarian crowns—one described as a tiara (the toupha), corresponding to the Gunther Shroud.

The two women in the tapestry may represent the major cities captured during the campaign: Preslav and Dorostolon. Supporting this theory is the fact that both cities were renamed Ioannoupolis (after the emperor) and Theodoroupolis (after Saint Theodore the Stratelate, a martyr and warrior saint believed to have intervened in the final battle against the Rus’).

It is then probable that the tapestry was created by the imperial silk atelier, which was housed in the Grand Palais, as part of the imperial propaganda, in the years following Tzimiskes’ campaign in 971.