Book contents
- The Bronze Horseman of Justinian in Constantinople
- The Bronze Horseman of Justinian in Constantinople
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Maps
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Note on Transliteration and Naming Conventions
- Selected Timeline of the Triumphal Column of Justinian and Its International Reverberations
- Map of Constantinople
- Introduction
- 1 Justinian’s Entry into Constantinople: He Came, He Saw, He Conquered
- 2 The Making of Justinian’s Forum
- 3 Defying a Defining Witness: the Bronze Horseman and the Buildings (De Aedificiis) of Prokopios
- 4 The Horseman of Baghdad Responds to the Horseman of Constantinople
- 5 Soothing Imperial Anxieties: Theophilos and the Restoration of Justinian’s Crown
- 6 Debating Justinian’s Merits in the Tenth Century
- 7 The Bronze Horseman and a Dark Hour for Humanity
- 8 The Horseman Becomes Heraclius: crusading Narratives of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
- 9 From Exile in Nicaea to Restoration of Constantinople
- 10 A Learned Dialogue across the Ages: Pachymeres Confronts Prokopios
- 11 Orb-Session: Constantinople’s Future in the Bronze Horseman’s Hand
- 12 Justinian’s Column and the Antiquarian Gaze: a Centuries-Old “Secret” Exposed
- 13 A Timeless Ideal: Constantinople in Slavonic Imagination of the Fourteenth–Fifteenth Centuries
- 14 The Horseman Meets Its End
- 15 Horse as Historia, Byzantium as Allegory
- 16 Shadowy Past and Menacing Future
- 17 After the Fall: the Bronze Horseman and the Eternal Tsar’grad
- Postscript: the Horseman’s Debut in Print
- Select Bibliography
- Index
12 - Justinian’s Column and the Antiquarian Gaze: a Centuries-Old “Secret” Exposed
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 April 2021
- The Bronze Horseman of Justinian in Constantinople
- The Bronze Horseman of Justinian in Constantinople
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures and Maps
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Note on Transliteration and Naming Conventions
- Selected Timeline of the Triumphal Column of Justinian and Its International Reverberations
- Map of Constantinople
- Introduction
- 1 Justinian’s Entry into Constantinople: He Came, He Saw, He Conquered
- 2 The Making of Justinian’s Forum
- 3 Defying a Defining Witness: the Bronze Horseman and the Buildings (De Aedificiis) of Prokopios
- 4 The Horseman of Baghdad Responds to the Horseman of Constantinople
- 5 Soothing Imperial Anxieties: Theophilos and the Restoration of Justinian’s Crown
- 6 Debating Justinian’s Merits in the Tenth Century
- 7 The Bronze Horseman and a Dark Hour for Humanity
- 8 The Horseman Becomes Heraclius: crusading Narratives of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
- 9 From Exile in Nicaea to Restoration of Constantinople
- 10 A Learned Dialogue across the Ages: Pachymeres Confronts Prokopios
- 11 Orb-Session: Constantinople’s Future in the Bronze Horseman’s Hand
- 12 Justinian’s Column and the Antiquarian Gaze: a Centuries-Old “Secret” Exposed
- 13 A Timeless Ideal: Constantinople in Slavonic Imagination of the Fourteenth–Fifteenth Centuries
- 14 The Horseman Meets Its End
- 15 Horse as Historia, Byzantium as Allegory
- 16 Shadowy Past and Menacing Future
- 17 After the Fall: the Bronze Horseman and the Eternal Tsar’grad
- Postscript: the Horseman’s Debut in Print
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
During the Renaissance the bronze horseman acquired new meaning as an object of revered antiquity. It spoke to Renaissance antiquarians who dedicated themselves to empiricism, scholarly inquiry, and a quest to recover the ancient past. When an influential early Italian humanist ascended scaffolding to inspect and draw the famous monument in Constantinople, he announced a major discovery that would initiate a new stage in the monument’s biography. Cyriac of Ancona exposed Justinian’s centuries-old "secret": the bronze horseman was originally created for a Theodosian emperor. His discovery was a triumph of antiquarian empiricism, demonstrating that inscriptions could uncover lost truths and correct the errors of the past. This was a paradigm shift in the study of the past. A drawing from Cyriac's circle became the main visual source for reconstructing the horseman’s appearance. It has continued to shape the monument in scholarly imagination to the present day. This chapter also examines representations of Justinian's bronze horseman in Notitia Dignitatum and views of Constantinople by Cristoforo Buondelmonti.
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- The Bronze Horseman of Justinian in ConstantinopleThe Cross-Cultural Biography of a Mediterranean Monument, pp. 263 - 292Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021