Arch of Constantine

92문장 0% 중국어 번역 0명 참여 출처 : 칸아카데미
번역 0%

Arch of Constantine발음듣기

[Steven] We're in Rome, standing in front of the Arch of Constantine.발음듣기

[Beth] This is such an interesting and problematic monument, it's one that scholars are still debating today, and not too far away is the Arch of Titus.발음듣기

And not too far away from that is the Arch of Septimius Severus and there was also an arch to Marcus Aurelius that doesn't survive.발음듣기

[Steven] Arches were built to celebrate especially important military victories.발음듣기

This particular arch is the first arch that celebrates a victory not over a foreign power but over a Roman rival.발음듣기

[Beth] So let's start by looking at the arch.발음듣기

[Steven] The surface is covered with sculpture.발음듣기

[Beth] And to make it even more complicated the sculpture dates from different time periods in Roman history.발음듣기

[Steven] So many of these sculptures weren't even made by Constantine he was reusing them from earlier monuments that had been built by earlier emperors.발음듣기

[Beth] The emperors Marcus Aurelius Hadrian and Trajan, those are three of the five what are known as good emperors who were seen to be especially benevolent emperors in Roman history.발음듣기

So here, Constantine seems to be associating himself with three of those five good emperors by bringing in sculptures from their monuments here into his own.발음듣기

[Steven] Let's start with the sculptures at the top.발음듣기

It's a little bit hard to get a sense of just how large those figures are but I'm estimating that they stand about 10 feet tall.발음듣기

[Beth] These freestanding figures are borrowed from monuments belonging to the emperor Trajan and these represent Dacian prisoners.발음듣기

[Steven] Dacia was more or less what we call Romania and this was an area that had been previously conquered by the emperor Trajan.발음듣기

[Beth] We can tell that they're Dacians we can tell that they're foreigners by the fact that they wear beards and by their clothing so they would've been easily identifiable as non-Romans.발음듣기

[Steven] As barbarians, which simply means foreigner.발음듣기

[Beth] And so what we see here are figures that have been conquered by the Roman Empire and this is a theme that reappears throughout the arch in different forms subjecting foreign peoples to the power of the Roman Empire.발음듣기

The panels in between the Dacians are from monuments belonging to the emperor Marcus Aurelius.발음듣기

[Steven] This is not freestanding sculpture this is high relief sculpture, and if we start the left we see the presentation of a client king.발음듣기

[Beth] Presenting to the Roman people a foreign king who has been captured.발음듣기

[Steven] Next to that, Marcus Aurelius receives barbarian prisoners.발음듣기

Then to the right, we have an address presumably Marcus Aurelius speaking to his soldiers speaking to the people.발음듣기

And then finally on the right Marcus Aurelius making a sacrifice before a battle.발음듣기

Then if we walk around the arch, on the other side we have four additional panels from Marcus Aurelius.발음듣기

These are the arrival of Marcus Aurelius into Rome Marcus Aurelius leaving Rome, the distribution of largess that is, Marcus Aurelius distributing money to the Roman people, and the submission of the barbarian prisoners.발음듣기

Look at the beauty of those reliefs they are very much in the classical style the bodies float easily, they're in complex poses there is a high degree of naturalism.발음듣기

[Beth] Many of the figures stand in contrapposto their drapery reveals the form of their body underneath in folds that are three-dimensional.발음듣기

And this is an important thing to note for some of the other sculptures we're gonna look at later.발음듣기

So below that, we see freestanding columns in front of pilasters, all with Corinthian capitals and between those columns, we see roundels that is, scenes set in round frames.발음듣기

[Steven] This is some of my favorite decorative sculpture on the arch.발음듣기

[Beth] These all come from monuments relating to the emperor Hadrian.발음듣기

[Steven] And remember, Hadrian was one of the good emperors.발음듣기

So on the south side from left to right we have departure for the hunt a sacrifice to the god Silvanus a bear hunt, and a sacrifice to the goddess Diana.발음듣기

On the north side, starting on the left is a boar hunt, a sacrifice to the god Apollo.발음듣기

And then against a field of purple porphyry which is an extremely expensive semiprecious stone is a roundel depicting the aftermath of a lion hunt and the sacrifice of Hercules.발음듣기

[Beth] It's important to remember that the Emperor was traditionally the head of the Roman state religion so making sacrifices to the gods.발음듣기

And then hunting something that was reserved for the elite a sign of strength for the emperor.발음듣기

[Steven] Just like the panels above the roundels are sculpted in high relief and the roundel that shows the sacrifice to Apollo I think is especially beautiful.발음듣기

And it reminds us that this is the classical tradition that the Romans had borrowed from the Ancient Greeks.발음듣기

[Beth] Look at the figure of Apollo standing semi nude in lovely contrapposto and the horse moving out into our space so this incredible naturalism not only in the body, but even in the treatment of space.발음듣기

As we move below the roundels we finally get to some sculpture that dates from the time of Constantine.발음듣기

It's a band that wraps around the entire arch and tells what really was the critical story for Constantine.발음듣기

[Steven] We're not entirely sure but many scholars believe that we should start on the west side of the arch, which shows Constantine's army making its way to Verona to attack the army of another Roman emperor, Maxentius.발음듣기

[Beth] This is a complicated moment in Roman history.발음듣기

For some time, the Empire had been ruled not by a single emperor, but by four emperors two senior emperors.발음듣기

And two junior emperors a system of government that was called a tetrarchy and the idea was that with four rulers in such a vast Empire, you would bring some political stability.발음듣기

[Steven] There were two rulers who were responsible for the east and two rulers that were responsible for the west.발음듣기

Constantine was one of the emperors that was responsible for the Western Empire.발음듣기

[Beth] And he went to battle against Maxentius who was his co-ruler in the west.발음듣기

[Steven] The next panel shows Constantine laying siege to the city of Verona and to Maxentius's troops.발음듣기

Then across the large bay is the most famous scene this is the Battle of the Milvian Bridge this is when the two armies confront each other just outside of Rome.발음듣기

[Beth] And Constantine defeats Maxentius and Maxentius is killed at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.발음듣기

This is the decisive battle that puts Constantine in charge of the western part of the Roman Empire.발음듣기

[Steven] The panel on the east side of the arch shows Constantine entering the city of Rome.발음듣기

And then on the north side, we have two final panels the oratorio at the rostrum, and the distribution of money to the Senate and the Roman people.발음듣기

Let's look at the distribution of largess.발음듣기

So the thing that strikes me most is just how different stylistically the carving is.발음듣기

Whereas the panels that had been borrowed from earlier monuments are so clearly classical in their representation.발음듣기

Here, the figures are squat the beautiful proportions of the human bodies have become stunted.발음듣기

And the roundness of the forms the careful definition of drapery is now simply incised markings they seem almost like drawings, not sculpture.발음듣기

About a century ago, when art historians looked at this contrast between styles they thought what they were seeing was evidence of the decline of the Roman Empire of the decline of the artistic capabilities of the sculptors of the day.발음듣기

That is, somehow, this more simplified form was less good.발음듣기

What some art historians now conjecture is that Constantine's imagery is not meant to compete stylistically, that it had a different purpose that it was valued for its clarity.발음듣기

[Beth] Well, the lack of concern for the correct proportions of the human body the lack of interest in a space for bodies to exist in these are characteristics that we associate with early Christian art.발음듣기

And in fact Constantine is the pivotal figure there he makes it possible for Christians to practice Christianity legally within the Roman Empire with the Edict of Milan and becomes, by legend, a Christian himself at the end of his life.발음듣기

[Steven] And we know that the style of early Christian art is to some extent meant to function symbolically rather than naturalistically.발음듣기

What's most important to Constantine's sculptures is clarity, they wanna make sure that we know that Constantine is the figure in the middle he's twice as large as every other figure.발음듣기

Sadly, he's lost his head at this point but we can just make out that his arm is outstretched and he's holding a tray of coins which are falling into the lap of a man who seems to be gathering the coins in his toga.발음듣기

[Beth] Senators at the top pass the emperor additional coins.발음듣기

We even see some children receiving the emperor's generosity.발음듣기

This is a very symmetrical composition with the emperor smack in the middle and all of the figures turning their attention to him so there's that idea of clarity and legibility.발음듣기

And then we have these four interesting scenes two on either side.발음듣기

[Steven] This is the bureaucrats that count and keep track of the money of the state and make possible the distribution of money that we see in the central scene.발음듣기

[Beth] There's a sense of a well-organized Roman government.발음듣기

If we go below, we see sculpture and the spandrels that also date from the time of Constantine.발음듣기

Most of these show victory figures some of them show Roman gods, and also the seasons.발음듣기

[Steven] And then in the bases of the columns you see additional relief carvings these are also Constantinian, and they show victories and subjugated barbarians.발음듣기

The last two major panels are found inside the main archway.발음듣기

[Beth] On one side, we see an inscription that translates 'bringer of peace.'발음듣기

Here, we see on the left the emperor being crowned by a figure of victory, and on the right, a battle scene.발음듣기

[Steven] The opposite panel shows Trajan on horseback trampling a barbarian, and the inscription above reads 'liberator of the city.'발음듣기

These two enormous inner panels are from the era of Hadrian but he made them not of his own exploits but of the exploits of the previous emperor, Trajan.발음듣기

[Beth] Now, the fascinating thing throughout this monument is that the heads of these previous emperors are often re-carved to the features of the emperor Constantine.발음듣기

So Constantine not only took these monuments from previous emperors, but had the faces of the emperors re-carved in his own image.발음듣기

So what are we to make of a monument that is essentially a collage where the emperor re-carved the faces of these good emperors, in many cases and gave them his own features what did the Roman people make of this~?발음듣기

This is something that art historians and archaeologists are still debating today.발음듣기

[Steven] Art historians struggle with what the arch means because each of the sculptures within it had its own meaning.발음듣기

And now together these sculptures from different periods have even more complex layers of meaning and all of this within the complex fabric of the city of Rome itself.발음듣기

[Beth] We're looking at it against the backdrop of the Coliseum, the spot that the arch is located on was part of the triumphal route that generals would take during ceremonial parades through the city of Rome up the sacred way to the Capitoline Hill.발음듣기

[Steven] Ultimately, Constantine is bringing these fragments together to place himself in the lineage of good emperors to present himself to the city of Rome and to history as a victorious military ruler but also as a good provider for the state.발음듣기

Top