![]() ![]() The controversy in dating the statue stems mostly from the style of the head. The current conclusion dates the entire statue to the fifteen year period from 315-330. ![]() The first hand and scepter were replaced by the second after Constantine’s conversion to Christianity.ĭating the statue of Constantine has proven particularly difficult. Two different right hands have also been attributed to this statue, one with a plain Roman scepter, and a second adorned with a Christian cross. While the ephemeral parts of the original statue crumbled, enough remnants have been recovered to infer that the statue was seated and bare-chested, thus perhaps in the pose of Jupiter (Zeus). The statue was installed as part of Constantine’s additions to the basilica, and was a 30ft tall seated figure of the emperor. The head, hands, and a foot are located in the Museo del Palazzo dei Conservatori. The orb and the other fragments are now held in the Capitoline Museum, and displayed in the Exhedra of Marcus Aurelius, a glass pavilion constructed in the 1990s to house the original gilt-bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius after it was restored (with its place in the Piazza del Campidoglio taken by a replica), along with a gilt-bronze statue of Hercules found in the Forum Boarium.Unfortunately, only fragments of the statue Constantine survive today. An 18th century etching by Piranesi shows the orb mounted on this column. The left hand still held the orb as late as the 1580s, but around this time the orb was removed to be mounted on the columna milliaria that had marked the first mile (1000 paces) along the Appian Way, which had also been moved to the Capitoline. By the 1320s, a head and hand were displayed between the church of St John Lateran and the Lateran Palace, near the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, which was then also thought to depict Constantine.Īlong with other antiquities, including the Capitoline Wolf and the Spinario, the fragments were donated to the city of Rome by Pope Sixtus IV in 1471, and transferred to the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitoline Hill, now part of the Capitoline Museum. The statue may have been originally erected at the Lateran Palace, then known as the "Domus Faustae" or "House of Fausta" after Constantine's second wife Fausta. ![]() Some have suggested the statue reuses parts of a much earlier Colossus of Nero, although probably not the colossus erected at the Flavian amphitheatre, perhaps later remodelled to represent Commodus, and later remodelled again to represent Constantine. From other numismatic evidence, others have suggested it may depict Constantine's son, Constantius II. It is thought to have been made before his vicennalia, celebrating the twenty year of his reign in 326. Head of the marble Colossus of Constantineīased on its similarity to the emperor's depictions on coins and resemblance to the marble Colossus of Constantine, the head is usually identified as a portrait of Constantine the Great, who was Roman emperor from 306 to 337. The end of the middle finger remains missing. It was reunited with the hand in 2021 in an initial five year renewable loan. It had been acquired with the collection of Giampietro Campana in 1862, but was long mistaken for a toe. The missing end of the index finger, about 38 cm (15 in) long, was rediscovered in 2018 in the collection of the Louvre Museum in Paris (inv. Much of the statue is missing: many bronze panels may have been melted down in late antiquity or the Middle Ages. Early sources indicate the head was crowned, with the left hand holding a globe (both surviving but now separated) and the right hand holding a sword (both missing). All three fragments are damaged: the crown of the head is missing, as are parts of some fingers of the hand. MC1070) and a spiked orb measuring 150 cm (59 in) (inv. Three large fragments of the statue survive, some with traces of gilding: a large head, 177 cm (70 in) high, or 125 cm (49 in) without the neck (recorded in the museum's inventory as MC1072) a left hand, which measures 150 cm (59 in) (inv. When complete, it may have reached 10 to 12 m (33 to 39 ft) in height. The bronze statue was probably made before the year 326. ![]()
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