ART HIS 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Ataulf, Mandrake, Anicia Juliana
Document Summary
Read a few chapters of the eliade to think about your first paper due week 4. There were tons of sculptures lying around in rome at the time, it was cost efficient to take from already created sculpture than to pay another artist to construct something new. Also, already existing sculptures were of deities and had ideological and symbolic meaning. For example, the column represents constantine as sole invictus. These helped him solidify power by representing him as an heir of the great rulers that have come before. Materiality of sculptures: the hugging tetrarchs: there is a notion of succession and solidity. They used a material called porphyry, a durable stone so is incredibly hard to carve and is purple; curried in egypt in mt porphyrius and used for imperial commissions. The huge sarcophagi were early byzantine rulers were put to rest in, this manifests imperial power. Constantine consolidates the combined empire and brought both halves together.