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  • Prof: Good morning everybody.

  • This is the last lecture in Roman Architecture,

  • and I think it's appropriate that I deliver this last

  • lecture, which I call "Rome of

  • Constantine and a New Rome," on Rome's birthday.

  • Indeed, this is Rome's birthday today, April 21^(st),

  • 2009.

  • Rome was born, as you'll recall,

  • on the 21^(st) of April in 753 B.C., which means that Rome is

  • 2762 years old today.

  • And since birthdays are often celebrated with cake and ice

  • cream, I should make good today on the

  • promise that I made to you at the very beginning of the

  • semester, which is that sometime in the

  • course of this semester I would recommend four ice cream places

  • to you, four gelaterias in Rome, to you.

  • And I've only recommended two.

  • I recommended Tre Scalini in Piazza Navona,

  • and I recommended the Della Palma that is located near the

  • Pantheon.

  • So I haven't--there are two more to go.

  • And it seemed on Rome's birthday, this was the perfect

  • thing to begin the lecture with, and that is to round the circle

  • and make you aware of the two other best ice cream places in

  • Rome.

  • And I show you here, on the left-hand side of the

  • screen, Giolitti, and on the right-hand side of

  • the screen San Crispino.

  • And note the birthday balloons, and that I'm enjoying myself

  • very much on Rome's birthday, today.

  • But just so that you know where these are.

  • You know Rome so well by now that I think I can give you

  • directions that are going to make sense to you.

  • So you are in the core of ancient Rome.

  • You've just been to visit the Colosseum and the Roman Forum.

  • Maybe you've been up on the Capitoline Hill.

  • You're exploring the Victor Emmanuel Monument,

  • and so with your back to the Victor Emmanuel Monument,

  • look straight ahead and you see the Corso,

  • the so-called Corso, the street of the racecourses,

  • or the racecourse, where the popes,

  • by the way, used to race their horses.

  • You stand facing the Corso.

  • You walk down the Corso.

  • You're on your way, in this regard,

  • toward the Piazza di Spagna, the Spanish Steps.

  • But before you get to the Spanish Steps,

  • you're going to notice one, the only department store in

  • Rome, Rinascente--that's why it's a

  • good landmark-- Rinascente, on the right.

  • You take a left and you're going to see the Column of

  • Marcus Aurelius, which is a column we didn't

  • look at this semester, but is based on the Column of

  • Trajan.

  • You take a look at the Column of Marcus Aurelius.

  • You continue into the next piazza, which is the Piazza

  • Montecitorio, with a great obelisk in the

  • center and a government building and a couple of hotels.

  • You stay on the right and you go down that next small street

  • and you hit Giolitti, which in my opinion is the

  • single best ice cream place in Rome.

  • So if you're in Rome, not to be missed.

  • It has the best fruit flavors in the city of Rome;

  • in fact, anywhere in Italy that I know of.

  • And the second one that I mention to you is San Crispino.

  • San Crispino is near the Trevi Fountain in Rome.

  • So you're going to go to the Trevi Fountain in any case,

  • and all you need to do when you're facing the Trevi Fountain

  • is to go about two blocks away from the Trevi Fountain and you

  • will hit San Crispino.

  • It has a smaller selection of flavors, but everything is very,

  • very good there.

  • In fact, they've been such a success that they have expanded

  • and opened another one near the Pantheon.

  • So again, back to the Pantheon, down that small street--I

  • already gave you the directions to Della Palma.

  • You go beyond Della Palma, you take a left and you'll hit

  • the second San Crispino.

  • So very important to share this with you, again before the term

  • is up, and in honor of Rome's birthday.

  • Also, of course, when you're at San Crispino,

  • don't forget the Trevi Fountain.

  • And you probably all know the tradition that when you go and

  • visit the Trevi Fountain, which is always very

  • crowded--this is actually a small crowd compared to what's

  • usually there-- after you've looked at it,

  • and enjoyed it for its own sake and for architecture,

  • obviously, of a much later period but I think one you can

  • see is very closely based on a lot of things that we've been

  • looking at this semester.

  • After you've looked at it--and people usually do this right

  • before they leave Rome; you go up to the fountain,

  • bring a coin-- it can be an American coin or

  • an Italian coin or any coin for that matter--

  • you stand in front of the Trevi Fountain,

  • with your back to the Trevi Fountain,

  • you take a coin, you throw it over your

  • shoulder-- got to make sure it goes into

  • the water and not on the side-- but throw it into the water,

  • and that will ensure that you will get to return to Rome

  • someday.

  • So don't forget to do that as well.

  • We spoke in the last lecture about the Tetrarchy,

  • about Diocletian and his formation of the Tetrarchy,

  • and his attempt to bring stability back to Rome and to

  • the Empire, and how successful he was

  • indeed.

  • We also talked about the fact that Diocletian and the other

  • Tetrarchs were responsible for some important building

  • projects, in fact, bringing architecture

  • back to Rome in a way that it had been missing in the third

  • century A.D.

  • And I mentioned in particular that Diocletian was interested

  • both in public and in private architecture.

  • And I remind you of an example of public architecture that we

  • looked at last time, on the top left,

  • the so-called Five Column Monument,

  • or Decennial Monument, or Tetrachic Monument,

  • that Diocletian erected in the Roman Forum to honor himself and

  • to honor his formation of the Tetrarchy,

  • and his relationship to Jupiter.

  • You'll remember the five columns: four with the Tetrarchs

  • imaged on the top in the front, the one of Jupiter behind,

  • that this was located behind the Rostra or the speaker's

  • platform in the Roman Forum.

  • We also talked about the fact that Diocletian was interested

  • again in private architecture, that he built a palace for

  • himself, a place that he hoped to retire

  • to, on the Dalmatian Coast where he

  • was born, at a place called Split.

  • And I remind you of it here, a restored view showing you

  • what it looked like; that it was essentially a

  • fortified camp, designed like a Roman

  • castrum, with walls and towers and a

  • very distinctive octagonal mausoleum that was located

  • across from the Temple of Jupiter.

  • So again his connecting himself to Jupiter, honoring Jupiter as

  • he honors himself.

  • And I also showed you an example of the portraiture of

  • the Tetrarchs.

  • We talked about the all-for-one-and-one-for-all

  • philosophy, how they stuck together,

  • not only in life but in their portraits,

  • and they depicted themselves, or they had themselves depicted

  • as this foursome, in large part again to

  • underscore the fact that all four of them were co-equal

  • emperors, that all four of them--or

  • almost co-equal emperors: you'll remember that there were

  • Augusti and Caesars, so some had the slight upper

  • hand, but for the most part they worked together.

  • They're represented as a whole, and they're represented in a

  • very similar way to one another.

  • And we talked about the use of geometric forms,

  • the abstraction, the solidity of these portraits

  • that I suggested mirrors this new stability that Diocletian

  • and the Tetrarchy have brought to Rome and to the Empire.

  • And we saw that those same qualities, that interest in

  • geometry, in abstraction, in solidity,

  • were characteristic also of Tetrarchic architecture.

  • And we're going to see some of those features continuing on in

  • the buildings that we're going to be looking at today.

  • Diocletian stepped down, retired voluntarily,

  • on the first of May in 305 A.D.

  • And Maximian, his co-Augustus,

  • stepped down as well, and the two Caesars were

  • elevated to Augusti, and two new Caesars were

  • chosen.

  • But without the strong presence of Diocletian the Tetrarchy fell

  • apart, and Rome and the Empire were once again plunged into

  • civil war.

  • The two main claimants for imperial power that came out of

  • this civil war were Maxentius-- Maxentius who was the son of

  • Maximian-- and Constantine--Constantine

  • who eventually became Constantine the Great--

  • Constantine who was the son of Constantius Chlorus.

  • And these two men, Constantine and Maxentius,

  • warred with one another for imperial power,

  • and they went against one another in one of the most

  • famous battles of all time: in fact,

  • a battle that is as well known, if not even more well known,

  • than the Battle of Actium, and this is the Battle of the

  • Milvian Bridge, the Battle of the Milvian

  • Bridge which took place in 312 A.D.

  • And it was at that epic-making battle that Constantine was

  • victorious over Maxentius, that Constantine became sole

  • emperor of Rome -- so a move away from the

  • Tetrarchy and the placement of power in the hands of one man.

  • Once again, Constantine becomes sole emperor of Rome.

  • And it was at that same battle, the Battle of the Milvian

  • Bridge-- and one of the reasons that

  • it's such an important battle in historical terms is the fact

  • that it was at that Battle of the Milvian Bridge that

  • Constantine was said to have seen the vision of the cross;

  • the vision of the cross that helped him to be victorious,

  • the vision of the cross that eventually led him to convert to

  • Christianity, which he did on his deathbed.

  • He was baptized a Christian on his deathbed.

  • One of the most interesting things that we'll talk about

  • today, and about the architecture

  • under Constantine the Great, is that we will see,

  • because he began as a pagan emperor and ended his life as a

  • Christian emperor, he has in a sense one foot in

  • the pagan past and the other foot in the Christian future,

  • and we're going to see that reflected in the architecture

  • that he commissioned, as we look at that today.

  • A few coins of Constantine which I think will help set the

  • stage for this one foot in the past and one foot in the future,

  • that is going to be the leitmotif of today's lecture.

  • I show you on the left-hand side of the screen a coin of

  • Constantine, when he first began his rise to power.

  • It was probably struck in around 306 A.D.

  • And it's an interesting coin, because if you remember--

  • I didn't bring it back to show you--

  • but if you remember the coin of Diocletian that I showed you,

  • you'll recall that he was represented in a very similar

  • fashion.

  • It's the sort of bearded blockhead style,

  • as I call it, for the Tetrarchy;

  • a very cubic image, a short, military hairstyle,

  • closely cropped, and a short beard that adheres

  • very closely to the shape of the face,

  • and the face masked itself with cubic geometric forms.

  • So we see Constantine in his very early portrait trying to

  • look like a Tetrarch, trying to look like his father,

  • Constantius Chlorus, trying to look like Diocletian,

  • trying to fit in, before he figures out the way

  • that's going to enable him, in fact, to become emperor,

  • sole emperor of Rome.

  • After he defeats Maxentius, at the Battle of the Milvian

  • Bridge, we see the greatest

  • transformation in the history of Roman portraiture,

  • in the history of self-imaging by emperors,

  • by people in power, and that is this transformation

  • that I can show you from this early coin of 306,

  • to a coin that dates after the Battle of the Milvian Bridge,

  • and that also represents Constantine.

  • And what you see has happened here is Constantine has shaved

  • off his beard, he has lost about twenty years

  • of age, and he is shown with an

  • entirely different hairstyle.

  • Not the short military hairstyle that he wore because

  • he wanted to liken himself to his father and to Diocletian,

  • but an entirely new hairstyle, but one--

  • for any of you who know your Roman portraiture or remember

  • the portraits that I showed you fleetingly of Augustus and the

  • Julio-Claudians-- he is wearing a cap of hair

  • that is very similar to-- a fuller cap of hair,

  • with comma-shaped locks over his forehead,

  • growing long on the nape of his neck,

  • that is characteristic of Augustus and also of Trajan.

  • He's in fact a neo-Augustus in this image, with a neo-Trajanic

  • hairstyle.

  • Why?

  • Because he is--as sole emperor he has made the decision that he

  • wants to now ally himself, not with the Tetrarchs,

  • which are of the past at this point,

  • but rather with the great emperors of the past:

  • with Augustus, with Trajan,

  • and as we'll see also with Hadrian and with Marcus

  • Aurelius.

  • And we can see that very important break here,

  • and we'll see it also in architecture.

  • Another coin down here representing Constantine,

  • with a bunch of pagan regalia.

  • We see him, as so many of the earlier emperors of Rome,

  • depicted along with a patron god, in this case the god

  • Helios, the god of the sun.

  • And you can see Constantine in the foreground,

  • Helios in the background: Helios represented with a rayed

  • crown-- and that's why we know it's

  • him--silhouetted right behind the emperor.

  • The emperor is shown as warlike, with military costume,

  • a spear, and then a shield over here.

  • And if we look closely at the shield we'll see the depiction

  • of someone in a chariot, led by four horses,

  • coming--it's represented frontally;

  • it's the solar chariot, the solar chariot of Helios.

  • So a coin that is very much in the usual pagan tradition,

  • where we see Constantine associating himself with the

  • pagan past and with a pagan god, in this case Helios.

  • This coin, however, that was also made after the

  • Battle of the Milvian Bridge, shows us a very different

  • Constantine.

  • It's an interesting frontal portrait, which is rare on Roman

  • coins.

  • He is still shown as the warrior.

  • He's in military costume.

  • He's holding the reins of his horse, who's also depicted

  • nicely in this portrait on this coin.

  • If you look very closely at his shield,

  • you will actually see that it still is decorated with a pagan

  • symbol, with the she-wolf suckling

  • Romulus and Remus.

  • But look up here.

  • The scepter that he carries is not the usual scepter or spear

  • that we see in pagan imagery, but a cross scepter,

  • a cross scepter and-- I don't know if you can see it

  • from where you sit-- he wears a medallion on the top

  • of his very elaborate helmet, with plumage and so on,

  • a medallion that has the Chi-Rho,

  • C-h-i, dash, R-h-o, the Chi-Rho,

  • which was the Christian monogram.

  • So we see him in this image, not as the great pagan warrior,

  • but as the new Christian crusader.

  • So a very important change from paganism to Christianity,

  • that as I mentioned already we will see also reflected in

  • Constantine's architecture.

  • Constantine learned a lot though from the Tetrarchs,

  • and one of the things that he continued on was to build great

  • public architecture; public architecture for the

  • benefit of the Roman populace at large.

  • He follows the lead of Diocletian in this regard and

  • adds another very large imperial bath to Rome;

  • and I show you a plan of that imperial bath here.

  • It bears his name, the Baths of Constantine,

  • and dates to 320 A.D.

  • It is located in Rome.

  • It is located on the Quirinal Hill, the Quirinal Hill.

  • And that should ring a bell for all of you,

  • because you'll remember it was Trajan--

  • Trajan, and remember Constantine is imaging himself

  • as a neo-Augustus with a neo-Trajanic hairstyle--

  • Trajan who built--who had much, a good part of the Quirinal

  • Hill cut back to make way for his forum,

  • and then placed his markets on part of what remained of the

  • Quirinal Hill.

  • So the Quirinal Hill was associated in everybody's mind

  • with Trajan.

  • Constantine wanted to associate himself with Trajan.

  • So when he decides where to place his new bath structure,

  • he chooses the Quirinal Hill.

  • This is not coincidental; it was very deliberative on his

  • part.

  • He builds it in a manner that is completely consistent with

  • imperial bath architecture in Rome: the imperial bath type of

  • architecture in Rome that we've already studied,

  • from the time of Titus, up through the time of

  • Diocletian.

  • The baths on the Quirinal Hill are no longer preserved,

  • but we fortunately have some drawings that were made by the

  • famous architect Andrea Palladio,

  • P-a-l-l-a-d-i-o, Andrea Palladio,

  • who drew it when it was in better shape,

  • and his drawings of the Baths of Constantine allow us to see

  • exactly what these baths were like in their heyday.

  • And we can see, although Palladio's drawing

  • concentrates on the bathing block,

  • you can see that he also includes down here--

  • and it's probably that this is all that remained of this

  • particular part of the bath in Palladio's time--

  • you can see he includes down here the great hemicycle that

  • we've seen in so many of these baths,

  • that are part of that precinct that surrounds the bath block.

  • So this suggests to us, and I think very convincingly,

  • that this bath, this bathing block,

  • was also placed in one of these very large precincts that had

  • all the seminar and lecture rooms and libraries around the

  • perimeter of it, and that this was lined with

  • seats and probably used for people to watch athletic

  • contests, or perhaps even plays of other

  • kinds.

  • The bathing block again we can see conforms extremely well to

  • the other baths that we've looked at,

  • to the Baths of Caracalla and Diocletian,

  • for example, with a natatio,

  • rectangular in shape, with a frigidarium that

  • is also rectangular and has three--

  • a triple groin vault, as you can see designated in

  • Palladio's drawing, and down here--this is a

  • re-interpretation, by the way, of Palladio's

  • drawing from Ward-Perkins, this plan that you see on the

  • screen now.

  • A tepidarium over here that's somewhat more unusual in

  • shape than we tend to see, where we have a series of

  • lobes, four lobes in fact, that have been--that have

  • expanded the space almost-- well it's sort of a circle,

  • trying to become an oval, I suppose--but you can see the

  • way in which they have expanded, and we call that kind of space

  • quadrilobate, quadrilobate,

  • and we see that here.

  • And then we also see--this is most interesting -- how the

  • caldarium is treated.

  • Because as you've seen in the baths that we've looked at,

  • the imperial baths that we've looked at,

  • if there's any room that's different in each of these it's

  • the caldarium.

  • You'll recall that Diocletian had moved to a rectangular

  • caldarium, with radiating alcoves.

  • But Constantine and his architects move back to the

  • circular caldarium that we saw in the Baths of

  • Caracalla, uses the same sort of scheme

  • here, with three radiating alcoves,

  • all of those screened from the outer space with columns,

  • and the rest of the structure, around these main rooms of the

  • bathing block that are related to one another,

  • axially we see the other rooms symmetrically disposed.

  • One other important point to make about the caldarium

  • is that we see that it too corresponds to a development

  • that we've already begun to see in some of the other buildings

  • that we looked at, especially in the last lecture,

  • and that is this move away from the oculus for

  • round-domed buildings.

  • This round--this caldarium does not have

  • an oculus, as so many caldaria did

  • in the past; think back to the--well or so

  • many bathing rooms did--think back to the frigidaria in

  • Pompeii, for example, with their oculus.

  • The oculus is no longer used here,

  • and instead we see windows in the base of the dome that are

  • very similar to the windows that we saw in a couple of Tetrarchic

  • buildings.

  • We're going to see it elsewhere today, and I'll reiterate that

  • point then.

  • Constantine, like so many Roman emperors

  • before him, did complete buildings that had

  • been begun by his predecessors, and he did this for some of the

  • Tetrarchs, including his father,

  • not surprisingly, Constantius Chlorus.

  • We know that Constantius Chlorus had chosen as his

  • capital the city of Trier, the city of Trier,

  • in what was Gaul but now is Germany.

  • And I show you the location of Trier.

  • This is a map showing the locations,

  • as we've discussed so many times this term,

  • of many of the--of all of the places that we've looked at in

  • the Western Empire.

  • And you can see the French cities that we looked at just

  • last time, in Gaul, and then up there

  • Trier, in what is now Germany, located near the modern city of

  • Cologne.

  • This was the chosen capital for Constantius Chlorus.

  • Even before Constantius Chlorus began to build a palace for

  • himself at Trier, as the other Tetrarchs had done

  • elsewhere in the Roman provinces,

  • there was quite a bit of building activity going on with

  • regard to one project in Trier, in the third century,

  • and not surprisingly that too was a defensive wall.

  • That part of the Empire was being attacked on a regular

  • basis by Germanic tribes, by the Franks and by the

  • Alemanni, were coming in, wreaking havoc in that part of

  • the world, and a decision was taken,

  • not surprisingly, in 275 and 276--because you'll

  • remember that's exactly when the Aurelian Walls were dedicated in

  • Rome, 275--to build a major wall in

  • this part of the Empire as well.

  • And we have some part of that wall still preserved,

  • especially a gate in that wall called the Porta Nigra,

  • which I show you here on the right-hand side of the screen.

  • The Porta Nigra which, although the walls were begun

  • in the 270s-- so the walls date primarily in

  • the third century-- this particular gate was not

  • added to the walls until the early fourth century A.D.,

  • during the time of Constantius Chlorus,

  • and Constantine completes this gateway and those baths .

  • If we compare the gate at the Porta Nigra in Trier to the gate

  • that we looked at from the Aurelian Walls,

  • the so-called Porta Appia that does date to around 275--

  • and you see it again in this restored view from Ward-Perkins,

  • on the left-hand side of the screen--

  • you will see the close resemblance of the Porta Nigra

  • to the Porta Maggiore in Rome.

  • By that I mean both of them have two arcuated entranceways;

  • both of them have round towers, as you can see here;

  • both of them have arcuated windows or blind windows,

  • as you can see; in the case of the Porta Nigra

  • they have columns between them, which is not the case in the

  • Porta Appia.

  • The main difference between these two is that the Porta

  • Appia in Rome you'll recall was made out of concrete faced with

  • brick, the most contemporary building

  • material, whereas you can clearly see by

  • looking at the Porta Nigra that the Porta Nigra is made out of

  • stone, out of cut stone construction

  • -- extremely old-fashioned at this particular time.

  • But I think it is very likely that they wanted,

  • by choosing this for this particular part of the world--

  • and it is--this cut stone construction is local stone--

  • by choosing this, they wanted to reassert a

  • relationship between the early fourth century A.D.

  • and earlier Rome, and especially earlier Rome and

  • imperial power, the very symbols of Roman

  • power, buildings like the Theater of Marcellus,

  • and especially the Colosseum in Rome;

  • we've talked about that as the very icon of Rome,

  • its ability to impress and to awe.

  • And I think they wanted to take advantage of that kind of awe

  • inspiring rhetoric, you know, visual rhetoric that

  • such a choice could make.

  • And I think it's an example of the fact,

  • just as Constantine reaches back to emperors like Trajan and

  • Augustus, to associate himself with in

  • his portraiture, I think that they had reason to

  • look back to some of the great buildings of the Roman past,

  • and to use that kind of visual imagery to reassert that Rome,

  • despite the fact that they were being attacked by barbarians,

  • all was well in Rome, or continued to be well in the

  • capital, as well as on the frontiers,

  • and this kind of image I think worked in that regard.

  • Well one hopes that--well they thought it would work at any

  • rate in that regard, even into the early fourth

  • century A.D.

  • Here's another view, the same view,

  • of the Porta Nigra.

  • And I compare it also to a detail from the Porta Maggiore

  • in Rome, which you'll recall was built by Claudius.

  • There is an interesting resemblance between the two,

  • and many scholars have called attention to that,

  • because the stone of the Porta Nigra is not as smoothed over as

  • the stone of the Colosseum or the Theater of Marcellus;

  • it's left in a much more rough state, a rough state that

  • reminds one of the rusticated masonry of Claudius' Porta

  • Maggiore.

  • But remember that in the case of the Porta Maggiore,

  • there was a deliberate disjunction between the

  • rusticated masonry and the finished masonry;

  • the finished capitals and also the finished pediments above.

  • And we talked about the fact that we believe that that has a

  • lot to do with the particular personality and antiquarian

  • interests of Claudius, who liked the intellectual

  • exercise and idea of playing off one against the other.

  • We don't see that same combination here.

  • We don't see the rough and the finished, in the case of the

  • Porta Nigra in Trier.

  • And it has been suggested, and I think correctly so,

  • that the reason that the Porta Nigra looks the way it does is

  • not deliberate, the way the Porta Maggiore is,

  • but rather because it really was unfinished;

  • the blocks were never fully smoothed over.

  • But it makes a very attractive appearance even still today,

  • despite that.

  • So Constantine completed this gateway, but he also completed

  • the palace that had been begun by his father;

  • Constantius Chlorus had begun a palace in Trier.

  • The palace had a very large and impressive bath building,

  • as a piece of it, and it also had this building

  • that is usually referred to today as the Aula Palatina or

  • the Basilica -- the Aula Palatina or the

  • Basilica.

  • We're not exactly sure how it was used in the palace,

  • but possibly in the same way that the basilica was in the

  • Palace of Domitian on the Palatine Hill,

  • as a place where he could sit and try cases himself.

  • It may have been used in the same fashion here.

  • And I can show you it's extremely well preserved.

  • It dates to 300 to 310 A.D.; again, part of the Palace of

  • Constantius Chlorus, completed by Constantine.

  • We see a plan and a restored view from Ward-Perkins now on

  • the screen.

  • And if you look at the plan, you will see that in the main

  • it follows the basilican plan that we've become so accustomed

  • to: a great open rectangular space with an apse on one end,

  • and with all attention drawn toward that apse.

  • So in that sense again, one foot in the pagan past;

  • it looks back to basilicas of an earlier date,

  • be they the one in Domitian's Palace or the Forum of Trajan in

  • Rome.

  • But there are some differences here.

  • One of them is the fact that you can see that there are no

  • columns inside the cella.

  • That's interesting, and it is in keeping with the

  • Tetrarchic aesthetic that we've already described,

  • for the Curia, for example,

  • with a box-like open space inside,

  • without any columnar decoration at all.

  • No columns in here; stark, geometric,

  • abstract in the Tetrachic manner.

  • But they have placed columns on the outside of the Basilica,

  • in a kind of courtyard on either side,

  • columns that you can see here, which is a very interesting and

  • unusual and in fact unique approach.

  • You can also see there is a transverse corridor over here,

  • and that--a transverse--a vestibule,

  • a transverse vestibule, entrance vestibule,

  • which is unusual and which we don't see in typical Roman

  • basilican architecture.

  • We call that a narthex, n-a-r-t-h-e-x,

  • and this addition of the narthex here,

  • the transverse vestibule, is interesting because it is

  • going to become the basis for most church architecture,

  • both from the time--basilican church architecture--

  • in the time of Constantine, because Constantine does found

  • Old-- does build Old St.

  • Peter's and other churches in Rome, and others follow suit.

  • So again, one foot in the pagan past, one in the Christian

  • future.

  • On the left-hand side of the screen,

  • the restored view of the exterior, shows not only those

  • low-lying columnar courtyards, but also that there were

  • railings on two stories.

  • It does show you as well--and the building is made out of

  • solid brick-- it does show you as well the

  • rounded windows, the arched windows,

  • which we have seen.

  • The round topped windows which we have seen have become

  • customary for Tetrarchic architecture,

  • as well as the very interesting use of projecting elements,

  • that are very simple -- they look almost like pilasters,

  • but they're not pilasters, they're a simplified,

  • abstract version of pilasters.

  • So this paring down of the elements that is so consistent

  • with the Tetrarchic ethos.

  • Here's a view of the Aula Palatina as it looks today.

  • Again, it is extremely well preserved, as you can see,

  • but it no longer has its outer courtyard and it no longer has

  • its railings.

  • But the rest is there.

  • You can see these wonderful round-headed windows and how

  • large they are.

  • We've talked about the ability of architects to dematerialize

  • the wall at this point in time, and the way in which they have

  • opened it up with very large windows.

  • And you can see what I was describing just before,

  • these molded elements that project out into our space.

  • They kind of look like they're made to conjure up pilasters,

  • but they don't have any capitals and they don't have any

  • bases; they're, in my mind,

  • a kind of abstract version of a pilaster.

  • And they're very effective, I think, in terms of the

  • aesthetic appeal of this particular building.

  • While the Basilica at the Palace at Trier,

  • the Palace of Constantius Chlorus at Trier,

  • is so clearly based on earlier Roman basilican architecture,

  • it looks to the future.

  • And if we look around Rome in the years following the

  • construction of buildings like the Aula Palatina,

  • we see lots of early churches.

  • I show you the church of Santa Sabina, S-a-b-i-n-a,

  • Santa Sabina in Rome, which dates to 425 A.D.,

  • so the fifth century A.D.

  • And I think you can see how similar it is to the Aula

  • Palatina: the basilican form; the apse at the end;

  • the very large round-topped windows that we see in the

  • Basilica at Trier.

  • The interior of the Aula Palatina is also very well

  • preserved.

  • You see a view of it here.

  • It has been transformed, not surprisingly,

  • into a church in later times.

  • It's a perfect space for that.

  • And I think it's well worth comparing it to the interior of

  • the Curia that we looked at last time,

  • because again it shows a vision of the Tetrarchy --

  • a vision that is consistent from Rome to the provinces;

  • this whole idea of paring things down to their basics,

  • of creating a box-like shape, no columnar architecture

  • whatsoever, a very sparsely decorated

  • rectangular space with a flat ceiling and with round-headed

  • windows.

  • We see the same concept here.

  • Here they've placed the round-headed windows on two

  • stories, which has opened the building up even more and

  • allowed light to flow into it; no columnar decoration

  • whatsoever.

  • The scheme of two rows of round-headed windows,

  • in the niche as well, also opening it up,

  • dematerializing it, allowing light to stream into

  • the building in what is a very spiritual way,

  • and again not at all surprising that it would be transformed in

  • later times into a church.

  • Once again one foot in the pagan past, one in the Christian

  • future.

  • I show you a restored view--we've looked at it

  • before--of the Basilica Ulpia in Rome, part of the Forum of

  • Trajan.

  • It's that kind of thing, that kind of basilican plan

  • that lies behind the design of the Basilica at the Palace of

  • Constantius Chlorus in Trier.

  • But it also looks forward to others.

  • I show you here the interior of Santa Sabina.

  • This might not have been the best to choose,

  • because you can see the columns have been reintroduced in the

  • interior of Santa Sabina.

  • But if you think those columns away and just look at the way in

  • which the apse is designed, with the round-headed windows,

  • the same round-headed windows in the upper story up here,

  • I think that you can see how much it owes to buildings like

  • the Aula Palatina.

  • The round dome building type, just like the basilican type,

  • was to be very important in the Constantinian period,

  • and also in later times.

  • And I show you--I remind you of some of the important domed

  • rooms that we've looked at in the course of this semester:

  • at the frigidarium at the Stabian Baths of Pompeii;

  • at the Temple of Mercury from the spa at Baia,

  • the so-called Temple of Mercury;

  • the octagonal room of Nero's Domus Aurea;

  • and the dome of the Pantheon here on the far right.

  • There is no more important form in Roman architecture than the

  • domed room, very characteristic of the

  • Romans, and a special gift that they passed on to posterity,

  • as you well know.

  • And this type of building continued to be explored in the

  • Constantinian period.

  • I could show you several examples, but I've chosen to

  • show you just one of those; and it's the one that you now

  • see on the screen in plan, a plan from Ward-Perkins.

  • This is the so-called "Temple of Minerva

  • Medica" in Rome.

  • It's not a temple at all.

  • It dates to the early fourth century A.D.

  • It's not a temple, but what it was,

  • was a pavilion in a garden.

  • We know that an emperor of the third century A.D.

  • by the name of Gallienus, G-a-l-l-i-e-n-u-s,

  • Gallienus, was responsible for building some imperial gardens

  • in the third century A.D.

  • -- so this was another project that did happen in the third

  • century A.D., the building of some imperial

  • gardens for the enjoyment of the emperors and of the imperial

  • family.

  • And it was in these gardens that were created in the third

  • century that this pavilion was added,

  • during the Constantinian period, in the early fourth

  • century A.D.

  • And I show you a plan of that temple,

  • that so-called Temple of Minerva Medica,

  • or this pavilion in the so-called Licinian,

  • L-i-c-i-n-i-a-n, the Licinian Gardens,

  • as commissioned by Gallienus, the Licinian Gardens.

  • And we see it here.

  • And it's very interesting because although it clearly--

  • it's a building made out of concrete,

  • faced with brick--and although it clearly is based on some of

  • the buildings that I just showed you--

  • the typical round structure with oculus,

  • the frigidaria, the spa, the octagonal room,

  • and the Pantheon--you can see that the architects of this

  • period were still able to innovate,

  • and have gone further by creating not a round building,

  • although at first it looks round, or an octagonal building,

  • but a decagonal building, a ten-sided building.

  • And you can see ten--you can see radiating apses,

  • nine, and then the entranceway over here.

  • So ten-sided structure.

  • If you look very carefully at the plan you will notice though

  • that the uppermost apse, the one that is located

  • directly across from the entranceway,

  • is a tiny bit larger than the others.

  • So that gives the building a little bit--

  • even though it's a round building--a little bit of a

  • longitudinal axis, which is very interesting --

  • this incorporation of a longitudinal axis into a round

  • structure.

  • You can also see the way in which the radiating apses,

  • the two on either side, left and right,

  • are screened by columns, in a way that we've also become

  • accustomed to.

  • And I believe that those columns, yes I'm pretty sure,

  • that those columns have a triple arcuation up above.

  • So that--yes, you can see that in plan--

  • a triple arcuation above that we've seen also is

  • characteristic of late Roman architecture,

  • not only in the private sphere, as this is,

  • but also in the more public sphere.

  • But going back to that longitudinal axis,

  • look also at the entrance vestibule.

  • This is another one of these narthexes,

  • this cross--this transverse vestibule,

  • in this case with apses on either end,

  • that is characteristic of these early fourth-century A.D.

  • Roman, pagan Roman buildings, but is going to become a

  • hallmark of Christian architecture,

  • not only basilican architecture,

  • that is churches in the form of basilicas,

  • but small religious structures that are circular in general

  • plan.

  • So a very interesting plan in that regard, and a very

  • innovative plan in the early fourth century A.D.

  • The building is still preserved.

  • I can show it to you.

  • I can show you the outside, as well as some details of the

  • inside of the building, as you see here.

  • It was made out of concrete, faced with brick,

  • as I mentioned before.

  • We are looking at the interior, up toward the dome.

  • You can see something very interesting here,

  • which is the addition of ribbed--of bricks to create ribs

  • in the dome, to give it something of a sense

  • of a segmented dome, which is a building technique

  • that we see sometimes in late Roman architecture.

  • And you can also see--although it looks like it has an

  • oculus, that's just because most of the

  • roof has fallen in; it did not have an

  • oculus.

  • Instead the lighting was provided through these

  • round-headed windows that we see, very large round-headed

  • windows at the base of the dome.

  • So again this move away, in late antiquity,

  • from the oculus to using these very large round-headed

  • windows to light the interior of the building.

  • And this is a view of the so-called Temple of Minerva

  • Medica as it looks today, from the outside,

  • where you can see those same round-headed buildings ,

  • where you can see those same sort of piers,

  • that are not so different from the ones that we saw at Trier,

  • used rather than columns to decorate the structure.

  • A large round-headed doorway down here.

  • You can see the scale--this is a pretty big pavilion in a

  • garden--you can see its scale in relationship to the cars that

  • surround it.

  • So continued innovation in round architecture under

  • Constantine the Great, and a building type that is

  • going to have a long history in the Medieval period,

  • in the Byzantine period, and well beyond.

  • I show you just one example of the impact that it had on later

  • church architecture.

  • This is the Church of San Vitale, a very famous church in

  • Ravenna, in Italy, that honors Justinian,

  • the famous Justinian, and Theodora.

  • It was built in the sixth century A.D.

  • And I think you can see by looking at a view of the

  • exterior plan, and also a view of the

  • interior, how important architectural experiments under

  • the Romans were for buildings like this: the massing of the

  • outside; the geometry,

  • the interest in geometry; simple forms;

  • round-headed windows.

  • So similar to the aesthetic that we saw in the Curia or in

  • the Basilica at Trier.

  • The plan above, in this case an octagon with a

  • central area, with radiating alcoves;

  • very similar to the sorts of things that we see,

  • not just in the Domus Aurea, but also in the Temple of

  • Minerva Medica.

  • And you can see the narthex here, just as we saw it in the

  • Temple of Minerva Medica.

  • And you can see in this view of the interior,

  • for example, the triple arches on top of the

  • two columns -- all of these motifs taken over

  • clearly from Roman architecture, ancient Roman architecture,

  • and exploited in the Medieval and Byzantine periods.

  • The single most important building that I am going to show

  • you today is the one that I want to turn to now.

  • And this is the so-called Basilica Nova,

  • or the Basilica of Maxentius-Constantine.

  • I can't over-emphasize the significance of this incredible

  • building.

  • It is a building that demonstrates to us that

  • Constantine not only completed commissions that had been begun

  • by his father, such as the palace at Trier and

  • the Porta Nigra, but also by other Tetrarchs,

  • and in this case by his rival, Maxentius.

  • We know that this building was begun by Maxentius,

  • which is why it is sometimes referred to as the Basilica of

  • Maxentius-Constantine, or more easily the Basilica

  • Nova.

  • It was begun by Maxentius in 306 A.D.

  • When Constantine was victorious over Maxentius at the Battle of

  • the Milvian Bridge, he took it over and he

  • completed it in his own name: so hence the Basilica of

  • Maxentius-Constantine, or again more easily the

  • Basilica Nova.

  • Now let me show you where it is, and by so doing it takes us

  • back to a Google Earth image that we've looked at time and

  • again in the course of this semester,

  • and I suppose in the last lecture it's very appropriate to

  • go back to this particular aerial view,

  • to remind ourselves of everything we've covered in the

  • center of Rome.

  • Just reminding you, of course, the Circus Maximus

  • up here, the Palatine Hill,

  • originally, with the huts of Romulus and later with the

  • Palace of Domitian.

  • The Capitoline Hill over here, as redesigned by Michelangelo.

  • The Wedding Cake of Victor Emmanuel down here.

  • The Via dei Fori Imperiali, the Imperial Fora,

  • with the Forum of Trajan.

  • The area that was built up by Diocletian,

  • or one of the areas, was the area over here,

  • which is where we see the Curia, which was restored by

  • Diocletian, and also the Five Column

  • Monument, are located on this side,

  • closest to the Capitoline Hill.

  • But Maxentius was particularly interested in the area,

  • the uppermost area, closer to the Colosseum.

  • If you look right under the Colosseum,

  • you can see the remains of the Temple of Venus and Roma,

  • which we looked at earlier in the semester --

  • a Temple of Venus and Roma that was the Greek import that

  • Hadrian built and may have designed himself in Rome.

  • And it was that--and I mentioned this at the time,

  • but you may have forgotten by now--that at the time that the

  • building burned down in a fire; remember that fire of 283 that

  • destroyed the Curia also destroyed part of the Temple of

  • Venus and Roma, and it was rebuilt by

  • Maxentius, by Maxentius, by the Tetrarch Maxentius.

  • He rebuilt the Temple of Venus and Roma, and you'll recall the

  • niche that is well preserved with his rebuilding.

  • So it's not surprising to see him choosing the location right

  • next door, right underneath the Temple of

  • Venus and Roma for his Basilica Nova in Rome,

  • when it begins to be built.

  • And it still is preserved on that site today.

  • I show you a panorama that includes the Basilica Nova,

  • and you see it right here, and you can see how very large

  • a building it is.

  • And there are only essentially three barrel vaults,

  • a small part of the building, still preserved.

  • But it gives you a sense of its scale, when you compare it to

  • some of the other structures here.

  • But you can see many that we've studied.

  • You can see the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina.

  • You can see the Arch of Septimius Severus.

  • You can see the Curia over here.

  • You can see the Tabularium, and the Michelangelo palazzo

  • that was built into that.

  • You can see the Victor Emmanuel Monument over there.

  • And you can see on this side the Arch of Titus,

  • the remains of the Temple of Venus and Roma,

  • and so on.

  • So a very large building in the midst of an area that Maxentius

  • was particularly interested in restoring.

  • Here's a view of the Basilica Nova as it looks today.

  • It's taken from the side, the other side,

  • with one's back to the Palatine Hill.

  • And we can see here that it is a building made out of

  • brick--out of concrete, excuse me, faced with brick.

  • We can see that the artists are better than ever at

  • dematerializing--the architects and designers--better than ever

  • at dematerializing the wall.

  • They have used very large, round-headed windows here,

  • on two stories.

  • There's more window than there's wall.

  • That's how good they've become at manipulating the brick-faced

  • concrete medium--you see it in this wall over here as well.

  • And you see these three giant barrel vaults,

  • with soaring vaults -- a very impressive work of architecture.

  • Let me show you a restored view of what the Basilica Nova would

  • have looked like in its heyday, and then let me say a little

  • bit more about what happens when Constantine takes over

  • construction of this particular building.

  • This restored view is very, very interesting because it

  • shows us that although this building was used,

  • without question, as a basilica--that was its

  • purpose, a basilica--we see here that it

  • is unlike any basilica that we have seen in the course of this

  • semester.

  • And I wonder as you look at this whether you can tell me if

  • it's not--it's not built like a customary basilica;

  • it doesn't look like the Basilica Ulpia in Rome.

  • It doesn't look like the basilica at Trier.

  • But it does look like what other kind of building,

  • that we've seen time and again in the course of this semester?

  • Look at the vaulting, look at the barrel vaults on

  • either side.

  • Look at the shape of the windows in the upper tier.

  • Look at the shape of the exterior of the building that is

  • created by the choice of vaulting.

  • What does this look like?

  • If not a basilica?

  • Someone said a market.

  • Yes which--yes, who said bath structure?

  • That's the answer.

  • Which part of a typical Roman imperial bath does this look

  • like?

  • The frigidarium; the frigidarium,

  • the frigidarium, the great large rectangular

  • space, with a triple groin vaulted roof,

  • with windows that are usually divided into three parts,

  • on the uppermost part, and then buttressed by great

  • barrel vaulted chambers.

  • This is a basilica that is built in the form of a

  • frigidarium.

  • That's an awfully creative thing to do.

  • It shows us once again this interest in the

  • interchangeability of form; that you can take a plan that

  • was used for one kind of building and use it for another,

  • as they have done so effectively here,

  • using a frigidarium plan for a basilica,

  • and capitalizing on that, to make it work in this

  • environment as well.

  • So some very creative minds I think at work in the time of

  • Maxentius and in the time of Constantine.

  • When the building was first designed for Maxentius,

  • the idea was to have the entranceway on the eastern part

  • of the building-- the eastern part of the

  • building, the part of the building that faces the

  • Colosseum-- and to enter into it that way,

  • and to have the main apse be over here,

  • on the western end of the structure,

  • to give it a longitudinal focus, and the kind of focus one

  • would have seen in a typical frigidarium,

  • as well as in a typical basilica.

  • Constantine comes in, takes it over,

  • and decides he wants to change the orientation.

  • He wants the entranceway not to be closest to the Colosseum,

  • but rather to the Roman Forum, and to the Sacred Way,

  • and to the Velia, which is the part on which this

  • was built, to the Arch of Titus.

  • And he instructs his architects to change the orientation from

  • an east-west orientation to a north-south orientation,

  • and to place the entranceway on the Forum side,

  • on the south.

  • He also instructs them to put four columns here,

  • and these columns are made out of porphyry,

  • that purplish stone that's quarried in Egypt and that was

  • used so extensively for Tetrarchic art,

  • Tetrachic portraiture; we see that here.

  • Then he's very tempted to change the orientation of the

  • niche; instead of to put his portrait,

  • as Maxentius--Maxentius intended to put his portrait in

  • this--his own portrait, that is, of Maxentius--in this

  • apse.

  • Constantine was probably tempted to put his own portrait

  • in this apse over here, on the northern side,

  • so that it would be the first thing that you saw when you came

  • in.

  • But he resisted that temptation and decided to leave--or to

  • place a seated portrait of himself in this niche,

  • leave it where Maxentius intended it.

  • So you would have to enter the building and take an abrupt left

  • to see that statue.

  • But we think--we're not absolutely sure--we think he may

  • also have put another statue of himself, in this case a standing

  • statue, in this niche.

  • But as we'll see, there are lots of niches in the

  • wall of the northern end, and we think that there were

  • statues of all of his lieutenants;

  • the lieutenants that had helped him win his great battle at the

  • Milvian Bridge, that were located in this

  • niche.

  • And so he may have been shown there, surrounded by his most

  • worthy and his most loyal lieutenants.

  • And then another statue of him seated in the niche over here.

  • So we see him--again the most important thing is he shifts the

  • orientation.

  • Another restored view, which perhaps--in color--which

  • perhaps gives you a better sense of the majesty of this

  • particular building, in its time.

  • The entrance, the Constantinian entranceway,

  • through the porphyry columns, through the doorways,

  • into the main body of the structure --

  • the same kind of marble pavements with maroon and green

  • and white, that we've seen in so many

  • other buildings, used here, marble revetment on

  • the wall.

  • You can get a sense of the groin vaults and the way in

  • which they were probably also decorated, either with painting

  • and stucco, or maybe even mosaic.

  • The great coffered ceilings of the barrel vaults.

  • And look at the way in which they've created a lateral

  • entrance, arched entranceways,

  • in each of these piers, to create a greater flow of

  • space, just as you would see in a typical frigidarium.

  • And then again this opening up, this very impressive opening up

  • of the walls, with these exceedingly large

  • round-headed windows that allow again light to stream into the

  • structure.

  • A real tour de force of Roman architecture;

  • in my opinion, one of the greatest buildings

  • ever built by Roman architects.

  • Believe it or not, we have the portrait of

  • Constantine still preserved, and I can show it to you,

  • or least bits and pieces of it --

  • a fairly significant number of bits and pieces,

  • including the head, which I show you here,

  • which is now on view in the courtyard of the Conservatori

  • Palace, one of the palaces on the

  • Capitoline Hill that belongs to the Capitoline Museums.

  • We see Constantine here, and you can see how similar he

  • is to that transformed portrait that showed him as a

  • neo-Augustus with a neo-Trajanic hairstyle: beardless,

  • very clean shaven, very large eyes,

  • but very much in the mode of the earlier emperors,

  • Augustus and Trajan, rather than in the mode of the

  • Tetrarchs.

  • And yet a very abstract, geometric image,

  • very much in keeping with Tetrarchic and Constantinian

  • art, in that regard, and truly colossal in scale.

  • We have a lot of the body parts that are also preserved in that

  • same courtyard, from this same statue,

  • including the shin of the leg, from the knee down,

  • the knee itself, and the way in which the knee

  • is depicted tells us that the knee was bent,

  • and that consequently this did indeed come from a seated statue

  • of Constantine, that statue that would have

  • been in that left-hand niche.

  • We also see the famous hand from the statue,

  • as well as part of an arm.

  • And the arm is very impressive, because if you look at it

  • carefully you will see that the musculature is very clearly

  • delineated, and you can even see the veins

  • of the arm showing through the skin,

  • which shows you how adept artists still were during this

  • time period.

  • These are right out in the courtyard of the Conservatori

  • Palace.

  • Everybody--there's no tourist, with a camera,

  • who goes by here without taking a photograph in front of it;

  • including yours truly.

  • I've done that.

  • I'm absolutely incapable--it's hard to say it--

  • I'm totally incapable of going into this piazza and not taking

  • a picture, either of whomever I'm with,

  • or them of me, and I have tons of these from

  • years and years of posing in front of this.

  • It's a pretty good Mediterranean tan,

  • I must say, on this side.

  • But posing with these hands and feet and so on.

  • This is my son, Alex, posing on the foot,

  • as you can see here.

  • So one can't--and you can only imagine.

  • I imitate the exact gesture up there, in this image.

  • But you can only imagine the kinds of photographs that are

  • taken in front of that hand, as tourists have to do.

  • You can find these actually if you go on Google Image,

  • and you can find them quite readily out there.

  • So if you do go--this is one of those other places that I hope

  • if any of you travel there and inspiration so moves you,

  • to take a picture of yourself and send it to me;

  • I'd love to see it.

  • At any rate, if you put all of those pieces

  • together--and there are actually two feet preserved,

  • two feet; the shin; the knee;

  • part of the chest, which we also have;

  • that arm that I showed you, the hand, the infamous hand;

  • and the head of Constantine.

  • This is what you get: a seated statue,

  • thirty feet tall--you've got a big building,

  • you need a big statue--thirty feet tall,

  • that sat in the main niche, that niche to the left as you

  • entered into the Basilica of Maxentius-Constantine from the

  • Roman Forum.

  • Here's another picture of me, although you can barely see me.

  • This was taken--it's amazing that I was able to take this

  • picture at one point, with no one else in it,

  • because the Forum is usually so crowded.

  • But here I'm standing with my back to us, looking at the

  • Basilica Nova.

  • And you can see how vast the great barrel vaults of the

  • Basilica Nova are.

  • There are scholars who argue that Roman architecture declined

  • in late antiquity; and not only architecture but

  • painting and sculpture as well.

  • And one could make an argument, I believe, that Roman painting

  • and sculpture did decline.

  • I'm not saying I necessarily agree that they did,

  • because art can sometimes change for reasons that have to

  • do with trying to articulate a different message than you've

  • tried to articulate before, and a new style may be more

  • appropriate for that than the style that you've been using up

  • to that point.

  • So I think it's a very complex matter when you think about

  • whether art declines or not.

  • But I will go so far as to say, without going into it in great

  • detail, although I'll say a little bit

  • more about it momentarily, when we look at the Arch of

  • Constantine.

  • But without saying whether I believe that Roman sculpture or

  • painting declines, I want to say categorically

  • that I do not believe that Roman architecture declines.

  • And I think a building like this is a case in point.

  • This, in my opinion, is again one of the greatest

  • buildings.

  • If you compare this to the Colosseum,

  • if you compare this even to the sacred Pantheon,

  • if you compare this to some of the bath buildings that we've

  • talked about, as impressive as they are,

  • I think this takes its place, the Basilica Nova takes its

  • place among the most impressive works of architecture that were

  • left to us by the Romans.

  • And I think you can see what I mean, just by looking at this

  • image.

  • Because to still be able to create these kinds of soaring

  • vaults out of concrete, to face them with brick,

  • to create windows that are large enough to essentially

  • dematerialize the wall-- and the building still stands,

  • and still stands today-- the soaring vaults,

  • those soaring rib vaults, or groin vaults,

  • that we see in the center of this space,

  • to do that at this kind of scale is an incredible

  • architectural feat.

  • I don't think there's any way that one can say that

  • architecture declines during this period, when one looks at a

  • building like this.

  • And also keep in mind how creative they've been,

  • that at this point in time they've decided to create a

  • basilica in the form of a frigidarium,

  • from a typical imperial bath.

  • That's a very creative thing to do,

  • and I think it couldn't have happened were it not that

  • architects-- that creative juices were not

  • continuing to flow for architects and artisans working

  • on major projects like these in the time of Constantine the

  • Great.

  • I want to turn from the Basilica Nova to the Arch of

  • Constantine, which is the last ancient monument that I'm going

  • to show you this semester.

  • The Arch of Constantine was constructed by Constantine to

  • celebrate his victory over Maxentius at the Battle of the

  • Milvian Bridge.

  • We think it was begun in 312 A.D.

  • and completed in 315 A.D.

  • It is also possible, some scholars have suggested

  • that it's conceivable, that Maxentius may have begun

  • this too, in the same way that he began

  • the Basilica Nova, and that Constantine took it

  • over when he was victorious over Maxentius at the Battle of the

  • Milvian Bridge.

  • We don't know which is the case, whether it was begun by

  • Maxentius and finished by Constantine, or whether

  • Constantine began it himself.

  • I'm more likely to favor the latter, that Constantine began

  • it himself.

  • But we do not know, and it's something that you

  • should be aware of, that particular controversy.

  • But it certainly dates to this time period, to roughly between

  • 312 and 315 A.D.

  • One of the reasons that we believe--

  • I mean, one of the reasons, the incontrovertible reason

  • that we know that the building was completed by Constantine is

  • the inscription tells us it's a Constantinian building,

  • but also there are friezes here that depict the Battle of the

  • Milvian Bridge, and other battles from that

  • war, and show us, of course, Constantine

  • victorious in those scenes.

  • It is a triple-bayed arch, very similar in that regard to

  • the Arch of Septimius Severus in the Roman Forum,

  • and I don't think there's any question that the general format

  • of it is based on the Arch of Septimius Severus,

  • in the Roman Forum.

  • It too, like the Arch of Septimius Severus,

  • is covered with sculpture, a veritable billboard

  • advertising the achievements of Constantine in this important

  • battle, and overall.

  • But we see that of course instead of the panels,

  • the excerpts as I described them, from the Columns of Trajan

  • or Marcus Aurelius that we see on the Arch of Septimius

  • Severus, we see a very different kind of

  • sculptural decoration here.

  • It does cover the entire arch, and it's interesting primarily

  • because some of it is Constantinian.

  • The parts that are Constantinian,

  • that were carved during the fourth century,

  • are the spandrels with the victories;

  • the spandrels with the river gods, very much like the Arch of

  • Trajan at Benevento; the frieze that encircles all

  • sides of the monument, you can see that frieze here;

  • the pedestals of the columns were also carved in the

  • Constantinian period; and there are two roundels,

  • two round frames, on either short side of the

  • Constantinian monument that were also done during the

  • Constantinian period.

  • But what's particularly interesting is the fact that all

  • the rest of the sculpture was cobbled together from earlier

  • monuments.

  • And it won't surprise you to hear that they were the

  • monuments of the emperor Trajan, the emperor Hadrian,

  • and the emperor Marcus Aurelius --

  • all the men whom Constantine considered the great emperors of

  • the second century A.D., the emperors of the second

  • century A.D.

  • with whom he most wanted to connect himself.

  • He inserts sculpture from their monuments into this monument.

  • We don't know whether these were monuments that had fallen

  • into disrepair and were lying in shambles around the city,

  • or whether he actually deliberately took apart earlier

  • monuments to extract from them the fragments that he wanted.

  • Also very interesting is the fact that in all of these

  • scenes, the scenes that are used from

  • earlier monuments, he replaces the heads of

  • Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius with his own portrait.

  • So he in a sense becomes them in this arch.

  • Let me show you quickly a diagram, which will give you

  • perhaps a better sense of all of this.

  • The Trajanic, the material from the Trajanic

  • period includes statues of Dacians that come from the Forum

  • of Trajan in Rome, as well as from two

  • panels--four panels in fact; two that are located on the

  • central bay, on either side, and two that are located on the

  • sides on the attic, in both cases.

  • Hadrian, the roundels, eight of them on the two long

  • sides of the arch, belong to some lost hunting

  • monument of Hadrian.

  • The panels, the vertical panels that you see in the attic,

  • come from an arch, a lost Arch of Marcus Aurelius.

  • And, as I've already described, the bases, the spandrels,

  • and the frieze all belong to the Constantinian period.

  • I want to show you those very, very quickly.

  • A panel on the left-hand side from the Forum of Trajan,

  • representing Trajan returning to Rome after his victory over

  • the Dacians.

  • We think this was a pedestal, or a base, a podium,

  • for the Temple of Divine Trajan that was at the end of the forum

  • and built by Hadrian.

  • We see a couple of the Dacians over here that come from the

  • Forum of Trajan, the second story,

  • in the main part of the forum.

  • And then here these vertical panels that we believe come from

  • a lost Arch of Marcus Aurelius.

  • Here we see part of the Constantinian frieze,

  • with Constantine seated, now headless,

  • in the center.

  • Here we see the roundels from a lost hunting monument,

  • we believe, of Hadrian.

  • You can see a dead lion, for example,

  • lying here.

  • Hadrian has returned from the hunt, but the head of Hadrian

  • re-carved as a head of Constantine.

  • Another scene over here: a sacrifice to Hercules,

  • who is floating in the uppermost part above.

  • But again the main thing for us is just that this comes from--

  • a Hadrianic monument is reused here so that Constantine can

  • associate himself with these great emperors of the fourth

  • century .

  • Another detail showing you the Dacians,

  • from the Forum of Trajan, as well as these panels from

  • this lost Arch of Marcus Aurelius,

  • probably originally dating to the 170s to 180 A.D.

  • What you see here are the spandrels, with victories,

  • and a victory in the base; victories triumphant over a

  • barbarian, who kneels at her feet.

  • And if you look at these scenes, if you look at these

  • very carefully and you compare them to the little bit of Roman

  • sculpture that we've looked at in the course of this semester--

  • think of the Ara Pacis, for example--

  • when you think back to that and you look at these figures,

  • one could agree with the contention that this is not as

  • good as it once was.

  • If you look at this figure of the doughy season--

  • the boy who's representing a season down here,

  • or this figure of the victory, who is not depicted with the

  • same finesse that we see the victory writing on the shield on

  • the Column of Trajan, I think a case can be made that

  • this is not as well rendered as it was once upon a time.

  • You can see that in the river god;

  • and you can definitely see it in this scene here.

  • This is a scene from the Constantinian frieze,

  • depicting the siege of the city of Verona,

  • very similar to that siege scene we saw in the Column of

  • Trajan with the battering ram.

  • And I think you can see, as you look at these figures,

  • they are much more awkward in their motions.

  • Look at these three over here, with the shields and the

  • spears.

  • They are exactly the same as if they were stamped out of a

  • cookie cutter.

  • You don't see the artist taking the time to create distinction

  • between them, as you would see on the south

  • frieze, for example, of the Ara Pacis.

  • Again there may be--there's a different--

  • they had different thoughts behind this of what they're

  • trying to achieve, and it may be that this

  • different style works better for what they've been trying to

  • achieve.

  • We've talked about this move toward abstraction and toward

  • geometry and so on.

  • So it's not that I'm talking about this in a denigrating way.

  • I'm saying that it could be chosen for a different reason

  • to--it helps them present their case in a better way.

  • But I don't--I think it's undeniable that it isn't as fine

  • in quality as what we saw before.

  • And we see here this scene of Constantine on the Rostra in the

  • Roman Forum addressing the people.

  • He's got the Five Column Monument behind him.

  • But look at these statues on either side; seated statues.

  • We can identify them by their portraits of Hadrian and of

  • Marcus Aurelius, which I think demonstrates

  • without any question-- the head of Constantine is

  • gone, but he would have been represented with his

  • neo-Trajanic hairstyle, in the center,

  • flanked by Marcus Aurelius and by Hadrian.

  • I think that suggests without question again that he is

  • deliberately-- that he has taken these bits

  • and pieces of sculpture from other monuments in order to

  • underscore his relationship to these great leaders of the pagan

  • past.

  • And I want to quote from Bernard Berenson,

  • the great art historian, in a book that he wrote called

  • The Arch of Constantine, or the Decline of Form,

  • in 1954.

  • And I quote him as we look at another detail from the

  • Constantinian frieze: "These stunted bodies are

  • swathed in heavy blankets, or covered with scanty shifts,

  • both with the folds of the drapery as unfunctional,

  • as helplessly chiseled, as ever European art sank to in

  • its darkest ages."

  • So that is a very damning point of view vis-à-vis this

  • sculpture.

  • But again I think a case can be made.

  • But I'd like to say here today that I don't think the same--I

  • want to underscore--that I don't think the same case can be made

  • for architecture.

  • When you look at the buildings that we looked at today,

  • the Basilica at the Palace of Constantius Chlorus,

  • finished by Constantine, I think you will agree with me

  • that this is a great building, and a great building again

  • rooted in the past, looking to the future.

  • When you look at something like the Tor de'Schiavi,

  • which we looked at last time, a tomb that is based on the

  • Pantheon in Rome, but has the innovation of the

  • porthole windows that we talked about --

  • architects still innovating, still looking to the past but

  • still innovating.

  • The great Baths of Diocletian, on the left,

  • and of Constantine, that we looked at today.

  • Huge baths in the imperial tradition.

  • Not very different from the Baths of Trajan or the Baths of

  • Caracalla; still as great.

  • They could still build at this scale, and they continued to

  • innovate, exploring new forms for the caldarium in each

  • of these cases.

  • The Minerva Medica that we talked about today.

  • Yes, in the tradition of round buildings,

  • in traditions of the explorations of Hadrian at his

  • villa, or Rabirius on the Palatine

  • Hill, but of a grand scale and with new innovations:

  • the placement of those windows, those round-headed windows,

  • at the base of the dome rather than the oculus,

  • the use of a decagonal plan.

  • Innovative, new, things that haven't happened

  • before.

  • So they are looking to the past.

  • They are building as well as they usually build,

  • and they are continuing to add new things.

  • When we look at--in fact, I'm reminded,

  • as I think about this, of the two roundels that were

  • put up-- that were added to the

  • Arch--that were put up in the-- that were made in the

  • Constantinian period for the Arch of Constantine.

  • And I show them to you here.

  • Luna in her chariot; the moon descending,

  • a cupid by her side, and the personification of the

  • ocean, Oceanus down below.

  • Luna descending.

  • And on the other side Apollo, the sun god,

  • ascending, from the ocean, his chariot is going up toward

  • the sky.

  • The cupid leads the way with a torch.

  • Just as the moon descends and the sun rises,

  • civilizations end, eras end, and other

  • civilizations come to take their place.

  • And what happened at the very end of ancient Rome is that

  • Constantine founds a new capital.

  • He founds the city of Constantinople as the capital of

  • the Roman Empire.

  • He does that in 324 A.D., and he dedicates it as the--

  • he dedicates this new city of Constantinople to the god of the

  • Christians on the 11th of May in 330 A.D.; 330 A.D.

  • So Constantinople becomes the new capital, replaces Rome as

  • the capital of the Roman Empire.

  • This may not have sounded so amazing at the start,

  • because we've already seen the Tetrarchs creating all kinds of

  • new capitals; the creation of a new capital

  • wasn't that bizarre at this particular point in time.

  • But he went on to decorate it with all kinds of buildings that

  • look very much like those in Rome,

  • and in retrospect we know that that move of the capital from

  • Rome to Constantinople signaled the death of Rome,

  • at that particular point in time, not to be resuscitated

  • again until essentially the Renaissance.

  • If we look at some of the buildings that survive though

  • from Constantinople, we will see that they are based

  • so very closely on those of Rome: the Hippodrome;

  • the sculpture at the base of the obelisk;

  • the aqueducts of Constantinople; and of course especially the

  • famous mosque of Hagia Sophia, which you see on the left,

  • which would have been inconceivable without the

  • architectural innovations of the Pantheon.

  • So although we see that the capital shifts from Rome to

  • Constantinople, that Rome's history at this

  • point lies in the future, when it's going to be revived

  • in the Renaissance; it's going to be looked at

  • again in the Baroque period and into the time of Mussolini and

  • even today, when Roman architecture remains so

  • influential.

  • But although again the argument can be made that sculpture and

  • painting decline, I think that architecture did

  • not.

  • And the lessons that the Roman architects provided have lasted

  • the test of time, that they were passed on,

  • these architectural wonders were passed on to the Middle

  • Ages in the West, to Byzantium in the eastern

  • part of the Empire; that they continued to be

  • operative in the Renaissance, in the Baroque period,

  • in the time of Mussolini, in the time of Richard Meier,

  • indeed today.

  • And I believe that they will continue to be significant for

  • anyone designing buildings.

  • They will provide an inspiration for at least the

  • next 2672 years.

  • Thank you very, very much this semester for

  • joining me on what has been a special adventure this semester,

  • and I again want to thank you for that.

  • And that's it.

  • Thank you.

  • >

Prof: Good morning everybody.

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B1 中級 美國腔

23.君士坦丁的羅馬和新羅馬 (23. Rome of Constantine and a New Rome)

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    Sofi 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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