Christ in Majesty

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The Christian icon of Christ in Majesty, in the Greek-speaking East the Deesis, was developed under Imperial patronage and survives, in its earliest examples, in Byzantine mosaics. The depiction of a monumental, frontal Christ Enthroned was an expansion of the earliest hieratic images of Christ, the half-length Christ Pantocrator, "Christ, Ruler of All". As with the earlier image, Christ holds the book representing the Gospels and raises his right hand in the gesture of blessing.

The oldest images are consistent with conventional portrayals of the Emperor in the diptychs or in mosaics; they find him centered in his court, represented in Christ's court of the martyrs, saints and bishops, or by the Four Evangelists who may be symbolically represented. Christ's head is surrounded by a halo. The throne in each case is set upon a stepped dais that lifts it from the mundane world.