The Campana art collection was assembled in Italy, acquired by Napoleon III, and then dispersed among the museums of France, including the Louvre, and also the Hermitage in Russia; Dalu Jones traces its journey.
Last May the international media broadcast the news of a singular and bizarre discovery of a huge (38cm long, 14cm wide), long-forgotten, bronze index finger (1) of uncertain date that had been in the basement of the Louvre in Paris. And, at last, the curators had found the original massive hand to which it belonged: the left hand (with its index finger missing) of a fragmented bronze statue 10m to 12m tall – five times the height of a human – of Emperor Constantine (AD 272–337), in the Capitoline Museums in Rome. Here, other surviving fragments of Constantine’s statue, including the emperor’s head and a globe, are displayed. These are known to us through detailed records from the 12th century onwards. What is puzzling is that the medieval texts and drawings describe the emperor’s left or right hand (with all the fingers in place) holding a big globe.
The head and the hand with globe were displayed in front of the Lateran, the original papal seat in Rome, on top of two marble columns. The donation, in 1471, by Pope Sixtus IV (r 1471–84) of the Lateran collection of ancient bronzes – including the famous she-wolf, the city’s emblem – to the people of Rome meant that they were then displayed on the Capitoline Hill, the seat of Rome’s civic government.
Later they would be housed in the Capitoline Museums, opened to the public in 1734 by Pope Clement XII, the first museum complex in the world, allowing works of art to be enjoyed not only by their owners but by visitors.
After detailed analysis of the finger’s gilded copper alloy and casting techniques, French and Italian scholars seem to agree that the index finger does belong to Constantine’s because it fits beautifully with the emperor’s hand in the Roman museum.
Esta historia es de la edición November/December 2018 Volume 29 Number 6 de Minerva.
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Esta historia es de la edición November/December 2018 Volume 29 Number 6 de Minerva.
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ROMAN DISCOVERIES AT ANCIENT AUGUSTODUNUM
More than 230 graves have been uncovered at a necropolis in the French city of Autun, revealing a diverse mix in burial practices over a period of nearly 200 years, as well as luxury grave goods from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD that highlight the wealth of some of its ancient inhabitants.
SHAPING THE WORLD: SCULPTURE FROM PREHISTORY TO NOW
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Amelia Edwards (1831-1892)
“I am essentially a worker, and a hard worker, and this I have been since my early girlhood.”
THE GREAT BEYOND
The ancient Greeks thought much about the dead – how their remains should be disposed of, how their spirits might be summoned, how malignant they could be if unavenged. Classicist David Stuttard brings us face to face with the Greek dead.
INTO THE VALLEY OF THE QUEENS
The Great Royal Wife of Ramesses II, Nefertari, was buried in one of the most spectacular tombs of Egypt’s Valley of the Queens. Well-educated and well-travelled, Nefertari played a crucial part in the political life of the pharaoh, and her importance was reflected through her magnificently decorated tomb. Lucia Marchini speaks to Jennifer Casler Price to find out more.
DEIR EL-BAHRI, 1894
Tensions were already high among the archaeologists, surveyors, and artists of the Archaeological Survey of Egypt in 1891 when an eventful dispute arose on Christmas Eve.
PUSHING BOUNDARIES
When the Etruscans expanded to the south and the vast plains of Campania, they found a land of cultural connections and confrontations, as luxurious grave goods found across the region reveal. An exhibition at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples sheds light on these ancient Italians at the frontier. Paolo Giulierini, director of the museum, is our guide.
CUZCO 'CENTRE AND HEAD OF ALL THE LAND'
Cuzco was the heart of the vast Inca empire, but all changed in the 16th century when the capital was conquered by Spanish invaders. Michael J Schreffler investigates the Inca city, and how it went from the centre of one empire to the periphery of another.
A STUDY IN PURPLE
A tiny speck of purple paint from the 2nd century AD may yield clues to how ancient artists created the extraordinary portrait panels that accompanied mummified bodies into the afterlife.
Rome In The 8th Century: A History In Art
John Osborne CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, £75 HARDBACK - ISBN 978-1108834582
