Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 11:50 PM |  

The term “Constantinian” is used to describe official manifestations of the arts during the final three-quarters of the fourth century. The finest architectural developments and public projects intended for propaganda purposes were primarily urban in character. Towns underwent a gradual transformation, and although the forum continued to be the focus of urban life, pagan temples were slowly replaced by Christian buildings. Not all public buildings were intended for Christian purposes, however. In Rome, the great civic basilica begun by Maxentius and completed by Constantine epitomizes the new official architecture of Late Antiquity. Built on a rise, it consisted of a nave and lateral aisles of monumental proportions. The imposing central nave (250 x 80 feet, and ii s feet high) was roofed with a groin vault resting on eight columns of Proconnessian marble. The influence of this building on the great Christian basilicas has often been noted.

In the monumental apse at the west end of the building was erected a colossal statue of Constantine, of which only the head (8’/2 feet high), a hand, an arm and a few other fragments have survived. The statue might serve to represent the entire era. It depicted the Emperor seated on a throne, wearing the paludamentum, his raised right hand holding a sceptre, which (if Eusebius is to be believed) was topped by a cross. The Christian Emperor had been elevated to almost supernatural status, dominating mere mortals by the sheer size of his image. The statue also defined the stylistic features of Constantinian portrait use: a renewed Classicism of rigorous stamp, which was to influence many private portraits, particularly those carved on sarcophagi.

The vestiges of other major buildings mm the brief reign of Maxentius can still be seen in Rome, notably the original circular temple dedicated to the deified Romulus in the Forum and his own palace on the Via Appia. Palace architecture is particularly well illustrated by Diocletian’s palace at Split. Although it antedates the Constantinian period proper, this palace is representative of a form of residential architecture in which monumental and decorative sculpture were important elements. Built around the year 300 on the Dalmatian coast near Salonae, the complex was intended as a retreat for the Emperor when he abdicated, five years later. It is based on the rectangular plan of a castrum, with towers at the corners and flanking the gateways, and a great peristyle dominating the residential apartments overlooking the sea. The palace at Split is generally conservative in design, blending the forms of a military camp with borrowings from the great imperial palaces of Rome. Other sumptuous palaces of this kind are known to have been built at Antioch, Constantinople, and for also semi—private use at Piazza Armerina in Sicily.

The official sculpture of the Tetrarchic period finds typical expression in the Tetrarchs Group from Constantinople, carved in red porphyry in the early fourth century and now incorporated into the south-facing façade of St Mark’s, Venice. In Thessalonica, the imperial capital of Galerius, a whole new residential quarter was built around the Emperor’s palace and the circus. At the head of the street leading to the Tetrarch’s circular mausoleum was erected a triumphal arch, its supporting pillars decorated with historiated scenes. Two of these pillars, depicting Galerius’s military campaigns in 297, have survived. Four horizontal registers separated by striking decorative bands are carved, on the north—east, with battle scenes and, on the south—west, with more scenes of the same type alternating with historical and allegorical imagery. At one point in the story, Galerius and Diocletian are shown performing sacrifice at the start of the second stage of the war. The final reliefs mark the end of the campaign, culminating in Galerius’s adventus and triumph in 303 AD. Strongly influenced by the Hellenism of the Eastern Mediterranean, the Arch of Galersus bears witness to the eclipse of Rome by the new imperial capital cities in the early fourth century, and the emergence of new forms of abstract and symbolic thought.

To celebrate Constantine’s victory over Maxentius in 312, on the occasion of his decennalia in 355 the Roman Senate and people had a triumphal arch erected at the foot of the Palatine. It consisted of a triple gateway with freestanding columns, a model that had been used several times before. The Arch of Constantine is the repository not only of an important group of reliefs from the first quarter of the fourth century, but also of many older works: eight statues of Dacians from Trajan’s reign, which stand atop the columns, eight medallions from Hadrian’s time, eight reliefs from the reign of Marcus Aurelius, and the great upper frieze from Trajan’s era. Contemporary with the construction of the Arch itself are the circular reliefs representing the sun and moon on the east and west ends, the eight imperial busts of the smaller openings, the reliefs of victories and trophies carved on the plinths of the columns, the divinities carved on the keystones of the arches, the river gods of the side arches, and the victories and seasons of the central area. Most important of all is the historical frieze which, following a pattern set by the arches of Titus and Septimius Severus in Rome and that of Trajan at Benevento, runs above the side arches and continues at mid-height around the ends of the monument. This frieze is rightly considered to represent the ideology and style of the period.

Symptomatic of the formal canon of Late Antiquity (which tended to distort the Classical ideal) is the complete absence of elements derived from the Hellenistic tradition. There is also a certain irregularity in the composition and a lack of realism in the way the figures are arranged. The atmosphere of the imperial court is expressed in new iconographical renderings, with the Emperor depicted full-face in the centre, flanked by figures who seem to exist only in relation to his person. The Emperor’s new status as a Christian prince, also reflected in consular diptychs of the period, is here combined with an obvious intention to lay claim to the Roman imperial heritage by the redeployment of earlier sculptural reliefs.

A certain unity of style is to be found throughout the Mediterranean region, in official monuments of the kind we have been describing, in the decoration of such luxurious private residences as those at Piazza Armerina in Sicily or Centcelles near Tarragona, and in the portraits of those who feature in the iconography of Christian basilicas (Aquileia). During the first half of the fourth century, even on sarcophagi, there is a tendency towards portraits with bulging eyes, roundish heads and short hair, Later on, and even during the first half of the fifth century, this style is abandoned in favour of a rather flaccid form of Classicism. A good example is the statue of the last pagan emperor, Julian the Apostate, now in the Louvre.

Posted by jokjak

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