Arch of Constantine
Rome, Italy
AD 306-337The short-lived "concordia" among the tetrarchs that ceased with the abdication of Diocletian was followed by an all-too-familiar period of conflict that ended two decades later with the restoration of one-man rule The eventual victor was Constantine the Great, son of Constantius Chlorus, Diocletian's Caesar of the West. After the death of his father, Constantine invaded Italy in AD. 312 and defeated and killed his chief rival, Maxentius, at a battle at the Milvian Bridge at the gateway to Rome - a victory that Constantine attributed to the aid of the god of the Christians.
In 313, he and Licinius, Constantine's co-emperor in the East, issued the Edict of Milan, ending the persecution of Christians.TEXT CONTINUED BELOW PHOTOS
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Egg-and-dart, dentils, leaf-and-dart, Corinthian column
Constantine and Licinius eventually became foes, and in 324 Constantine defeated and executed Licinius near Byzantium (modern Istanbul, Turkey). Constantine was now unchallenged ruler of the whole Roman Empire, and shortly after the death of Licinius, Constantine founded a "New Rome" on the site of Byzantium and named it Constantinople (the city of Constantine).
A year later, in 325, at the Council of Nicaea, Christianity became de facto the official Roman religion, and the decline of paganism began to accelerate. Constantinople was formally dedicated on May 11, 330, "by the commandment of God," and in succeeding decades Christian churches were constructed there in great numbers. Constantine himself was baptized on his deathbed in AD 33. For many scholars, the transfer of the seat of power from Rome to Constantinople and the establishment of Christianity as the official religion of the state mark the beginning of the Middle Ages.
Constantinian art is a mirror of this transition from the classical to the medieval world. In Rome, for example, Constantine was a builder in the grand tradition of the emperors of the first, second, and early third centuries A. D, erecting public baths, a basilica on the Sacred Way leading into the Roman Forum, and a great arch commemorating his success on the battlefield, but he was also the patron of the city's first churches, including St. Peter's
Constantine's ArchImmediately after the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, Constantine erected a great triple-passageway arch in the shadow of the Coliseum to commemorate his victory over Maxentius. The arch was the largest to be erected in the capital since the end of the Severan dynasty nearly a century before, but the achievement is less impressive when it is revealed that much of the sculptural program of the arch was taken from earlier monuments of Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius, and that the columns and other architectural
members also date to an earlier era. The second-century reliefs were, however, refashioned to honor Constantine by recutting the heads of the earlier emperors with the features of the new ruler and by adding labels to the old reliefs.The reuse of second-century sculptures by the Constantinian artists has frequently been cited as evidence of a decline in creativity and technical skill in the waning years of the pagan Roman Empire. While such a judgment is in large part deserved, it ignores the fact that the reused sculptures were carefully selected in order to associate Constantine with the "good emperors" of the second century.
Details of the arch:
- The eight sculptures above the side arches depicting hunting scenes and sacrifices date from the time of Hadrian (117-138) and the portrait of Hadrian have been replaced by those of Constantine and Licinius.
- The figures of prisoners on the architraves above the columns date from the time of Trajan (98-117)
- as do the two reliefs on the narrow sides of the attic story and those inside the main arch;
- the eight reliefs on the long sides of the attic storey showing scenes of war and triumphs date from the time of Marcus Aurelius (161-180).
However, the long and narrow friezes that run right round the arch are of Constantine's time and differ from the others in artistic concept. They portray various episodes in the Emperor's campaign against Maxentius; they no longer obey realistic rules of perspective, but the figures are frontally placed and their dimensions are dictated by their position in the hierarchy; the Emperor stands out from the rest because of his much larger size.
Sources:
- "Gardner's Art Through the Ages, Tenth Edition," by Richard G. Tansey and Fred S. Kleiner. Harcourt Brace College Pub. 1996
- Leonardo B. Dal Maso, "Rome: From the Palatino to the Vaticano." 1992
- Leonardo B. Dal Maso, "Rome of the Caesars"
