1000 Portraits of Genius. Victoria Charles
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125. Portrait of Caracalla, Roman, 215–217 C.E. Marble, height: 72 cm. Musei Capitolini, Rome.
126. Portrait of Alexander Severus, Roman, 222–235 C.E. White marble, height: 23 cm. Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
127. Bust of Commodus as Hercules, Roman, 180–193 C.E. Marble, height: 133 cm. Musei Capitolini, Rome.
This portrait of the Roman Emperor Commodus shows him in the guise of Heracles, the great hero of myth. Commodus was one of the more deranged and tyrannical emperors, and one of his follies was to imagine himself as Heracles. He changed his name to Heracles Romanus and forced the Senate to declare him a god. This portrait is in some ways typical of the portraiture of the time. It shows the emperor as young and bearded, which was the standard style since Hadrian. His face is given a classicising, elegant appearance, yet the hooded eyes were particular to Commodus and show this to be, at least to some degree, a likeness. The emperor’s hair and beard have finely-chiselled curls. Otherwise, however, the portrait is rather unusual. Commodus is draped in the lion skin worn by Heracles, held in place by the knotted front legs of the beast. He holds Heracles’ club in one hand, and the apples of the Hesperides, from the mythical labours of Heracles, in the other. Other than the lion skin, he is bare-chested, another sign of his supposed divinity.
128. The Elderly Fisherman, or “The Death of Seneca”, Roman, 2nd century C.E. Black marble and alabaster, height: 121 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
129. Head of the Colossal Statue of Constantine, Basilica of Maxentius, Rome, Byzantine, 313–324 C.E. Marble, height: 260 cm. Palazzo dei Conservatori, Musei Capitolini, Rome.
130. Solidus of Constantine, Byzantine, c. 324–326 C.E. Gold, diameter: 3.6 cm. Byzantine Collection, Dumberton Oaks, Washington, D.C.
131. The Tetrarchs: Diocletian, Maxentius, Constantius Chlorus and Galerius, Myrelaion, Constantinople, Byzantine, 4th century C.E. Porphyry. Porta della catra, Basilica di San Marco, Venice.
The third century was a turbulent time in the Roman Empire, with constant civil war and a series of military leaders vying for power. When Diocletian became emperor in 284, he chose to solidify his rule by sharing power with his rivals. He established a tetrarchy, or rule by four. Diocletian took the title of Augustus of the east, with a corresponding Augustus of the west, and secondary rulers of east and west called Caesars. Marriages were arranged among members of the tetrarchs’ families to reinforce the relationships. Although this power arrangement was unusual, it was surprisingly effective, and order was maintained until Diocletian retired, at which point the division between east and west fractured the empire for good. This portrait of the four tetrarchs is notably different than earlier portraits of emperors. The classicising style of depiction has been discarded in favour of the native, plebeian style of art, long seen in pieces such as funerary reliefs, but rarely in imperial monuments. Plebeian art is characterised by the stocky proportions and stylised presentation of the body, as seen here. This style was probably introduced to imperial art via the series of military leaders who served as emperor during the third century, and brought with them the plebeian vernacular.
Middle Ages
132. Equestrian Statuette of Charlemagne or Charles the Bald, 9th century. Bronze, formerly gilded, height of rider: 19.5 cm, height of horse: 21 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris. Carolingian.
Historically, the Middle Ages were defined as the period that comprised the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 C.E. and Christopher Columbus’ first steps onto the soil of the New World in 1492. Between these two monumental historical events – one resulting from the slow decadence of an empire that became too vast, and the other, marking symbolically the beginning of great discovery – a thousand years of art. These works were created from a hierarchical society that distinguished itself by its communal spirit, the central importance of the Christian religion and its numerous small territories (with the exception of the Carolinian empire between 800 and 843 when political unity was achieved).
These three important characteristics directly influenced portraiture. It is perfectly valid to question the existence of the portrait during the Middle Ages. In fact, religious debates on iconoclasm that refer to Christianity from the end of Antiquity were amplified during the Byzantine empire during the eighth and ninth centuries. These debates favour the representation of the divine rather than the human form. Outside of this theological problem, we can quickly see that a society where the individual was only recognised by their adherence and function to a group (corporations, feudal systems, religious orders…) did not promote portraiture in their definition of artistic creation. The exception of the Byzantine Empire was notable. Inherited directly from the imperial art of Rome, it prolonged propagandistic art and the diffusion of powerful images through representations of the emperor (Barberini Ivory), his wife and consuls (Consular diptych of Aerobindus) whether it be on coins, mosaics (Leo IV Prostrate Before Christ in Majesty) or carved ivory. These images were meticulously dispersed and controlled. In addition, the goal of these portraits was not to create true representations of the subjects’ physical traits, but more or less to affirm their power and assure their legitimacy.
This courtly style that used the most luxurious materials for its production considerably influenced the art of the Carolinian empire by transmitting its iconographic models (leaked by Byzantine artists who took refuge in Rome at the time of the first iconoclastic crisis). This trend again spread models issued by Greco-roman Antiquity in occidental Europe: what we call the Carolinian Renaissance. Nonetheless, if Byzantium primarily used gold, ivory and silk (samit), the artists in service of Charlemagne preferred the art of the miniature that replaced the architecture that they previously decorated with mosaics and frescoes. Furthermore, Byzantine art was unipolar, centralised in Constantinople, whereas Carolinian art was multipolar. The models were, of course, created under the exclusive control of the sovereign, but they were later shared and reproduced in monastic schools and studios throughout the territories. The great creative centres at the time were Aix-la-Chapelle (Saint Matthew), Tours, Reims (Saint Mark and Saint Matthew of Ebbon) and Metz.
The Treaty of Verdun in 848 instigated a division of the imperial territory between the three sons of the sovereign had large consequences on the workshops founded by Charlemagne. If their activities had been prolonged at least until the beginning of the tenth century, they would have been detached from the central power and develop different original pre-Romanesque styles. With the collapse of the Roman Empire, numerous different territories were formed with the effect being a multitude of new regional styles. The artistic poles kept their big Carolinian abbeys but, at the same time, bore a major Catholic reform movement indicating new rigorous laws in terms of the decoration of religious buildings. The décor was then reduced to the simplest expression possible (Lombard band, blind arcades…) and the illuminated manuscripts only presented dropped initials or organic border décor, sometimes stylised animal motifs were used as well. Therefore, the portrait or even a simple human representation was basically absent from the architectural ornamentation. It wasn’t until the Romanesque period beginning in the eleventh century when the human figure was again present in the artistic domain, principally in sculpture. These relief sculptures principally decorated the façades of large and rich abbeys that were found during the pilgrimage of Saint James of Compostella (the Paths of Saint James) that conserved numerous reliquaries of popular saints like the Cluny, the Sainte Foy Abbey, the Autun Cathedral, the Saint Pierre Abbey in Moissac, the Vézelay Abbey… Even if man or, rather, God and the saints reappeared as the subjects of painting and sculpture, the term “portraiture” was still nonexistent. But it would be apprenticed not to consider these new forms that mark a return to narrative art. Monumental (Head of a Prophet, west façade, Saint Denis Abbey Church) and mobile (Reliquary Statue of Saint Foy) sculpture as well as illuminated manuscripts