![]() To attack the army of another Roman emperor, Maxentius. Which shows Constantine's army making its way to Verona That we should start on the west side of the arch, We're not entirely sure, but many scholars believe It's a band that wrapsĪround the entire arch, and tells what really As we move below the roundels, we finally get to some sculpture that dates from the time of Constantine. Look at the figure of Apollo standing semi nude in lovely contrapposto, and the horse moving out into our space, so this incredible naturalism, not only in the body, but even Is the classical tradition that the Romans had borrowedįrom the Ancient Greeks. The sacrifice to Apollo, I think is especially beautiful, and it reminds us that this Just like the panels above, the roundels are sculpted in high relief, and the roundel that shows ![]() The gods, and then hunting, something that was reserved for the elite, a sign of strength for the emperor. Of the Roman state religion, so making sacrifices to Remember that the Emperor was traditionally the head Of purple porphyry, which is an extremelyĮxpensive semiprecious stone, is a roundel depicting theĪftermath of a lion hunt, and the sacrifice of Hercules. To the god Apollo, and then against a field On the north side, starting on the left, is a boar hunt, a sacrifice So on the south side from left to right, we have departure for the hunt, a sacrifice to the god Silvanus, a bear hunt, and a sacrifice And remember, Hadrian was one of the good emperors. These all come from monuments relating to the emperor Hadrian. This is some of my favorite decorative sculpture on the arch. With Corinthian capitals, and between thoseĬolumns, we see roundels, that is, scenes set in round frames. So below that, we see freestanding columns in front of pilasters, all Stand in contrapposto, their drapery reveals theįorm of their body underneath in folds that are three-dimensional, and this is an important thing to note for some of the other sculptures They're in complex poses, there is a high degree of naturalism. ![]() Look at the beauty of those reliefs, they are very much in the classical style, the bodies float easily, The distribution of largess, that is, Marcus Aureliusĭistributing money to the Roman people, and the submission of the barbarian prisoners. Marcus Aurelius into Rome, Marcus Aurelius leaving Rome, Then if we walk around theĪrch, on the other side, we have four additional And then finally on the right, Marcus Aurelius making a Speaking to his soldiers, speaking to the people. Then to the right, we have an address, presumably Marcus Aurelius Next to that, Marcus Aurelius receives barbarian prisoners. Presenting to the Roman people a foreign king who has been captured. This is notįreestanding sculpture, this is high relief sculpture,Īnd if we start the left, we see the presentation of a client king. The panels in between theĭacians are from monuments belonging to the emperor Marcus Aurelius. We see here are figures that have been conqueredīy the Roman Empire, and this is a theme that reappears throughout the arch in different forms, subjecting foreign peoples to We can tell that they're Dacians, we can tell that they're foreigners, by the fact that they wearīeards and by their clothing, so they would've been easily Had been previously conquered by the emperor Trajan. Less what we call Romania, and this was an area that These freestanding figures are borrowed from monumentsīelonging to the emperor Trajan, and these represent Dacian prisoners. It's a little bit hard to get a sense of just how large those figures are, but I'm estimating that they To be associating himself with three of those five good emperors, by bringing in sculpturesįrom their monuments here into his own. ![]() The emperors Marcus Aurelius, Hadrian and Trajan, thoseĪre three of the five, what are known as good emperors, who were seen to be especially benevolent emperors in Roman history. So many of these sculptures weren't even made by Constantine, he was reusing them from earlier monuments that had been built by earlier emperors. And to make itĮven more complicated, the sculpture dates from different time periods in Roman history. Not over a foreign power, but over a Roman rival. This particular arch is the first arch that celebrates a victory Arches were built to celebrate especially important military victories. Not too far away from that is the Arch of Septimius Severus, and there was also anĪrch to Marcus Aurelius that doesn't survive. It's one that scholars are still debating today,Īnd not too far away is the Arch of Titus, and This is such an interesting and problematic monument, Rome, standing in front of the Arch of Constantine.
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