Portret i nadgrobna ploča bosanske kraljice Katarine Kotromanić (1425-1478) u Rimu / The Portrait and Tombstone of Bosnian Queen Katarina Kotromanić (1425-1478) in Rome

Abstract

The author of this article discusses the tombstone of the Bosnian Queen Katarina Kotromanić (1425-1478) in the Roman basilica Santa Maria in Aracoeli and the Queen’s portrait in the Vatican hall of the ancient Roman Emperor Constantine the Great which was mentioned by the Ragusan chronicler Giacomo di Pietro Luccari (1550-1615). He attempts to answer the questions when, how and why the Queen became a member of Constantine’s house and why was she buried in the vicinity of posthumous remains of
Constantine’s mother Saint Helen? Based on Luccari’s words and Queen’s most probably forged testament he searched for it on the fresco “Donation of Constantine to the Roman Pope Sylvester I”. It is possible to connect a hypothesis by a Croatian polyhistor Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski (1816-1889) with this portrait to the Queen’s portrait in the Roman Capitoline gallery.