What Art Movement Was Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius From

Due to a fortunate case of mistaken identity, this commanding statue was saved from destruction.

Equestrian Sculpture of Marcus Aurelius, bronze, c. 173-76 C.E., (Capitoline Museums, Rome)

The original location of the sculpture is unknown, though it had been housed in the Lateran Palace since the 8th century until it was placed in the center of the Piazza del Campidoglio past Michelangelo in 1538. The original is at present indoors for purposes of conservation. Marcus Aurelius ruled 161-180 C.Eastward.

In aboriginal Rome equestrian statues of emperors would not have been uncommon sights in the city—late antique sources advise that at to the lowest degree 22 of these "great horses" (equi magni) were to be seen—as they were official devices for honoring the emperor for atypical armed forces and civic achievements. The statues themselves were, in turn, copied in other media, including coins, for even wider distribution.

Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius, c. 173-76 C.E. gilded bronze (Capitoline Museums, Rome). The original location of the sculpture is unknown. First in the eighth century, information technology was located most the Lateran Palace, until it was placed in the eye of the Piazza del Campidoglio in 1538 by Michelangelo. The original statue is at present indoors for purposes of conservation (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Few examples of these equestrian statues survive from artifact, however, making the Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius a singular artifact of Roman artifact, one that has borne quiet witness to the ebb and menstruation of the urban center of Rome for nearly 1,900 years. A gold bronze monument of the 170s C.E. that was originally dedicated to the emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, referred to commonly as Marcus Aurelius (reigned 161-180 C.E.), the statue is an important object not merely for the study of official Roman portraiture, but also for the consideration of monumental dedications. Further, the apply of the statue in the Medieval, Renaissance, mod, and post-mod city of Rome has important implications for the connectivity that exists between the past and the nowadays.

Equestrian Sculpture of Marcus Aurelius, c. 173-76 C.E., bronze (Capitoline Museums, Rome) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Equestrian Sculpture of Marcus Aurelius, c. 173-76 C.Eastward., bronze (Capitoline Museums, Rome) (photo: Steven Zucker, CC Past-NC-SA 2.0)

Description

The statue is an over life-size depiction of the emperor elegantly mounted atop his horse while participating in a public ritual or ceremony; the statue stands approximately four.24 meters tall. A gilded bronze statue, the slice was originally cast using the lost-wax technique, with horse and rider cast in multiple pieces and then soldered together later casting.

The horse

The emperor's horse is a magnificent case of dynamism captured in the sculptural medium. The horse, caught in motion, raises its right foreleg at the knee joint while planting its left foreleg on the footing, its move checked past the application of reins, which the emperor originally held in his left paw. The horse'due south body—in particular its musculature—has been modeled very carefully by the creative person, resulting in a powerful rendering. In keeping with the motility of the horse's trunk, its caput turns to its correct, with its mouth opened slightly. The equus caballus wears a harness, some elements of which have not survived. The horse is saddled with a Persian-way saddlecloth of several layers, as opposed to a rigid saddle. Information technology should exist noted that the horse is an of import and expressive element of the overall composition.

The horseman

Horse and rider (detail), Equestrian Sculpture of Marcus Aurelius, c. 173-76 C.E., bronze (Capitoline Museums, Rome)

Horse and rider (detail), Equestrian Sculpture of Marcus Aurelius, c. 173-76 C.E., bronze (Capitoline Museums, Rome) (photograph: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA two.0)

The horseman sits astride the steed, with his left hand guiding the reins and his right arm raised to shoulder level, the mitt outstretched.

Marcus Aurelius, type I portrait, ca. 140 C.E.

Marcus Aurelius, blazon I portrait, ca. 140 C.E. (Capitoline Museums, Rome)

There are approximately 110 known portraits of Marcus Aurelius and these take been grouped into four typological groupings. The first two types belong to the emperor's youth, before he causeless the duties of the principate.

In the Roman world it was standard practice to create official portrait types of high-ranking officials, such equally emperors that would then circulate in various media, notably sculpture in the round and coin portraits. These portrait types are vital in several respects, especially for determining the chronology of monuments and coins, since the portrait types can usually exist placed in a fairly accurate and legible chronological order.

The interpretation of these portraits relies on various cardinal elements, especially the reading of hairstyle and the examination of facial physiognomy. In the example of the equestrian statue, the portrait typology offers the best means of assigning an approximate date to the object since it does non otherwise offer another means of dating. The earliest portrait of Marcus Aurelius dates to c. 140 C.Eastward. and is best represented by the Capitoline Galleria 28 type, where the youth wears a cloak attached at the shoulder (paludamentum); this portrait was widely circulated, with approximately 25 known copies (above, left).

Marcus Aurelius, type II portrait, ca. 147 C.E.

Marcus Aurelius, type II portrait, c. 147 C.East. (Antiquarium of the Palatine)

The second portrait type was made when Marcus was in his late 20s, c. 147 C.E. and shows a however youthful type, although Marcus now has low-cal facial hair (correct).

Marcus Aurelius became emperor in 161 C.East., when he was twoscore years of historic period; this was the occasion for the creation of his 3rd and nigh important portrait blazon. This mature type shows the emperor fully bearded with a total head of tightly curled, voluminous pilus; he retains the characteristic oval-shaped face up and heavy eyelids from his earlier portraits. His coiffure forms a distinctive arc over his forehead. This third type is known from approximately 50 copies.

Marcus Aurelius, type IV

Marcus Aurelius, type IV, 170-180 C.E. (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)

The emperor's fourth portrait type (left), created between 170 and 180 C.East., retains most of the features of the third type, but shows the emperor slightly more avant-garde in age with a very full bristles that is divided in the centre at the chin, showing parallel locks of hair.

The statue of the horseman is carefully composed by the creative person and depicts a figure that is simultaneously dynamic and a bit passive and removed, past virtue of his facial expression (run into prototype below). The locks of hair are curly and compact and distributed evenly; the beard is also curly, roofing the cheeks and upper lip, and is worn longer at the mentum. The pose of the body shows the rider's caput turned slightly to his right, in the direction of his outstretched right arm. The left manus originally held the reins (no longer preserved) between the index and heart fingers, with the palm facing upwards. Scholars continue to debate whether he originally held some fastened figure or object in the palm of the left hand; possible suggestions have included a scepter, a globe, a statue of victory – but there is no clear indication of whatever attachment point for such an object. On the left hand the rider does wear the senatorial ring.

Portrait head (detail), Equestrian Sculpture of Marcus Aurelius, c. 173-76 C.E., bronze (Capitoline Museums, Rome)

Portrait head (detail), Equestrian Sculpture of Marcus Aurelius, c. 173-76 C.East., bronze (Capitoline Museums, Rome)

The rider is clad in borough garb, including a short-sleeved tunic that is gathered at the waist by a knotted belt (cingulum). Over the tunic the rider wears a cloak (paludamentum) that is clasped at the right shoulder. On his anxiety Marcus Aurelius wears the senatorial boots of the patrician course, known as calcei patricii.

Interpretation and chronology

The estimation and chronology of the equestrian statue must rely on the statue itself, as no aboriginal literary testimony or other bear witness survives to help in the interpretation. It is obvious that the statue is role of an elaborate public monument, no doubt commissioned to marker an important occasion in the emperor's reign. With that said, withal, it must also be noted that scholars continue to argue its precise dating, the occasion for its cosmos, and its likely original location in the city of Rome.

Starting with the portrait typology information technology is possible to determine a range of likely dates for the statue'south cosmos. The portrait is clearly an adult type of the emperor, meaning the statue must take been created after 161 C.E., the twelvemonth of Marcus Aurelius' accession and the creation of his third portrait type. This provides a terminus post quem (the limit afterwards which) for the equestrian statue. Art historians have debated whether the portrait head most resembles the Type 3 or the Type IV portrait. Contempo scholarly thinking, based on the work of Klaus Fittschen, holds that the equestrian portrait represents a unique variant of the standard Type III portrait, created as an improvisation by the artist who was commissioned to create the equestrian statue. In the stop the precise chronology of the portrait head—and indeed the typology—remains a matter of scholarly debate.

Relief from honorary monument to Marcus Aurelius, 176-180 C.E., marble 350 cm (Capitoline Museums, Rome)

Relief from honorary monument to Marcus Aurelius, 176-180 C.East., marble 350 cm (Capitoline Museums, Rome)

The pose of the horseman is likewise helpful. The emperor stretches his right hand outward, the palm facing toward the ground; a pose that could exist interpreted every bit the posture of adlocutio, indicating that the emperor is near to speak. However, more probable in this case nosotros may read it as the gesture of clemency (clementia), offered to a vanquished enemy, or of restitutio pacis, the "restoration of peace." Richard Brilliant has noted that since the emperor appears in civic garb as opposed to the general's armor, the overall impression of the statue is 1 of peace rather than of the immediate post-war celebration of military victory. Some art historians reconstruct a now-missing barbarian on the right side of the horse, as seen in a surviving panel relief sculpture that originally belonged to a now-lost triumphal arch dedicated to Marcus Aurelius (left). We know that Marcus Aurelius historic a triumph in 176 C.E. for his victories over German and Sarmatian tribes, leading some to advise that year as the occasion for the creation of the equestrian monument.

History

The original location of the equestrian monument likewise remains debated, with some supporting a location on the Caelian Loma near the barracks of the regal cavalry (equites singulares), while others favor the Campus Martius (a low-lying alluvial manifestly of the Tiber River) as a possible location. A text known equally the Liber Pontificalis that dates to the heart of the tenth century C.E. mentions the equestrian monument, referring to information technology as "caballus Constantini" or the "horse of Constantine." According to the text, the urban prefect of Rome was condemned following an uprising against Pope John XII and, equally punishment, was hung by the hair from the equestrian monument. At this fourth dimension the equestrian statue was located in the Lateran quarter of the metropolis of Rome most the Lateran Palace, where it may have been since at to the lowest degree the eighth century C.Due east. Popular theories at the time held that the bearded emperor was in fact Constantine I, thus sparing the statue from being melted downward.

Étienne Dupérac, Michelangelo`s Design for the Campidoglio, 1569, engraving

Reverse of Italian € 0.50 coin

Reverse of Italian € 0.l coin

In 1538 the statue was relocated from the Lateran quarter to the Capitoline Hill to become the centerpiece for Michelangelo'due south new blueprint for the Campidoglio (a piazza, or public square, at the top of the Capitoline colina). The statue was set atop a pedestal at the center of an intricately designed piazza flanked by three palazzi (image above). It became the centerpiece of the main piazza of secular Rome and, every bit such, an icon of the metropolis, a function that its yet retains. The equestrian statue even so plays a role as an official symbol of the city of Rome, even beingness incorporated into the reverse image of the Italian version of the € 0.50 coin (image higher up). The statue itself remained where Michelangelo positioned information technology until information technology was moved indoors in 1981 for conservation reasons; a high-tech re-create of the original was placed on the pedestal. The ancient statue is now housed within the Musei Capitolini where information technology can exist visited and viewed today.

The equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius is an indelible monument, one that links the city's many phases, ancient and mod. It has borne witness to the city's imperial glory, postal service-imperial refuse, its Renaissance resurgence, and even its quotidian experience in the xx-first century. In so doing information technology reminds u.s. about the function of public art in creating and reinforcing cultural identity as it relates to specific events and locations. In the ancient world the equestrian statue would accept evoked powerful memories from the viewer, non merely reinforcing the identity and advent of the emperor but also calling to mind the key events, achievements, and celebrations of his administration. The statue is, like the city, eternal, every bit reflected past the Romanesco poet Giuseppe Belli who reflects in his sonnet Campidojjo (1830) that the golden statue is directly linked to the long sweep of Rome's history.

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