The Statues of Constantinople

A presentation of the ancient statues once set up in Byzantine Constantinople, with a special focus on their popular reception.

Albrecht Berger (Author)

9781108958370, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 July 2021

75 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 0.6 cm, 0.146 kg

This Element discusses the ancient statues once set up in Byzantine Constantinople, with a special focus on their popular reception. From its foundation by Constantine the Great in 324, Constantinople housed a great number of statues which stood in the city on streets and public places, or were kept in several collections and in the Hippodrome. Almost all of them, except a number of newly made statues of reigning emperors, were ancient objects which had been brought to the city from other places. Many of these statues were later identified with persons other than those they actually represented, or received an allegorical (sometimes even an apocalyptical) interpretation. When the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade conquered the city in 1204, almost all of the statues of Constantinople were destroyed or looted.

1. Introduction
2. 'Shining like the sun upon the citizens': Constantine's statue on the Forum
3. Other statues of emperors on triumphal columns
4. Of emperors and elephants
5. Constantine Helios as charioteer
6. The Forum of Constantine
7. The servant of the wind
8. The rider on the Tauros
9. The place of brotherly love
10. Empress Helena and the lord of Amastris
11. The Ox of bronze
12. Three-headed statues
13. Exakionion and Golden Gate
14. Prophecies of the future
15. Testing chastity
16. Collections of statues
17. Statues in the Hippodrome
18. The statues of Constantinople in the late Byzantine age
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Archaeology [HD], European history [HBJD], History of art: Byzantine & Medieval art c 500 CE to c 1400 [ACK]