The Colossus of Constantine is an acrolithic statue of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, carved circa 312-315 AD with possible reworking after 325 AD, combining a carved marble head, arms and legs with a brick core and wooden framework, likely once clad in gilded bronze for the remaining body. Seated and enthroned, the figure stood approximately 12 to 13 metres tall, with a head measuring about 2.5 metres and feet exceeding 2 metres in length, originally occupying the apse of the Basilica of Maxentius in Rome as a symbol of Constantine's victory and Christian authority. The head is carved in the abstract, transcendent Constantinian style associated with the later emperor, while the surviving hand and foot fragments show naturalistic detail, including callused toes and bulging forearm veins. Surviving fragments are held by the Capitoline Museums, displayed in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori, with a full-scale reconstruction installed in the Villa Caffarelli gardens in February 2024. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Subject Matter
Devotional FunctionSourced to the subject's own accountAn enthroned colossal figure of this scale deliberately evokes the seated cult-statue type long used for Jupiter and other enthroned gods, so the statue reads as a calculated ambiguity: a Roman emperor borrowing the visual language of divine kingship at the very moment his own religious patronage was shifting toward Christianity, rather than a straightforward continuation of either the old imperial cult or a purely secular portrait tradition. 1 Classification
Object TypeSourced to the subject's own account Medium (class)Sourced to the subject's own account Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Derived: this work depicts a figure already recorded as belonging to this tradition; the work-to-tradition link is inferred from that live depicts edge and the figures own attested tradition affiliation, not independently sourced beyond it.
Depicts
The statue's sole subject, one of the largest surviving portrait sculptures of any Roman emperor.
Source Colossus of Constantine (Wikipedia)
Additional Source Capitoline Museums (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Colossus of Constantine (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead section, describing the statue
The Colossus of Constantine (Italian: Statua Colossale di Costantino I) was a monumental acrolithic statue depicting Constantine the Great (r. 25 July 306 AD, 22 May 337 AD) that occupied the apse of the Basilica of Maxentius in the early 4th century.
catalogue record, medium/object-type description
The Colossus of Constantine is an acrolithic statue of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great, carved circa 312-315 AD with possible reworking after 325 AD, combining a carved marble head, arms and legs with a brick core and wooden framework, likely once clad in gilded bronze for the remaining body.
View the Source Capitoline Museums (Wikipedia)
WikipediaDepicts: Constantine the GreatQuote, Depicts: Constantine the Great
The Colossus of Constantine, visible in the courtyard, dates back to the 4th century.
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