| Carmagnola | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Year | possibly 6th-century AD |
| Medium | porphyry |
| Subject | possibly Emperor Justinian I |
| Location | St Mark's Basilica, Venice |
Carmagnola or la Carmagnola is the traditional name of a porphyry head of a late Roman emperor, widely thought to represent Justinian, now placed on the external balustrade of St Mark's Basilica in Venice.
The Diadem unambiguously identifies the head as that of a late Roman emperor, and on stylistic grounds it has been dated between the 4th and 6th centuries, with several scholars identifying it as a depiction of Justinian. The flattened nose is ostensibly the result of damage and subsequent repolishing. [1] It is "one of the most significant" of the ornamental trophies that adorn the Basilica's facade, [2] looking straight into the direction of Constantinople.
A headless porphyry statue kept at the Archiepiscopal Museum in Ravenna has been hypothesized to belong to the same original. [3]
The head may come from the Philadelphion in Constantinople, the original location of the Portrait of the Four Tetrarchs that is now just below on the Basilica's Piazzetta facade. It was "almost certainly" [1] brought to Venice as part of the loot from the Sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204 CE.
The condottiere Francesco Bussone da Carmagnola was beheaded on 5 May 1432 on the Piazzetta, where his head was presumably left exposed for some time, leading to the sculpture's traditional nickname. [1]
Ravenna is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire during the 5th century until its collapse in 476, after which it served as the capital of the Ostrogothic Kingdom and then the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna.
In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name to the architectural form of the basilica.
A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly popular in the Ancient Roman world.
Piazza San Marco, often known in English as St Mark's Square, is the principal public square of Venice, Italy, where it is generally known just as la Piazza. Almost all the other urban spaces in the city are called campi ("fields"). The Piazzetta is an extension of the Piazza towards San Marco basin in its southeast corner. The two spaces together form the social, religious and political centre of Venice and are referred to together. This article relates to both of them.
The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark, commonly known as St Mark's Basilica, is the cathedral church of the Patriarchate of Venice; it became the episcopal seat of the Patriarch of Venice in 1807, replacing the earlier cathedral of San Pietro di Castello. It is dedicated to and holds the relics of Saint Mark the Evangelist, the patron saint of the city.
Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire, or Eastern Roman Empire.
The Hippodrome of Constantinople, was a circus that was the sporting and social centre of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. Today it is a square in Istanbul, Turkey, known as Sultanahmet Square.
Jacopo d'Antonio Sansovino was an Italian Renaissance sculptor and architect, best known for his works around the Piazza San Marco in Venice. These are crucial works in the history of Venetian Renaissance architecture. Andrea Palladio, in the Preface to his Quattro Libri was of the opinion that Sansovino's Biblioteca Marciana was the best building erected since Antiquity. Giorgio Vasari uniquely printed his Vita of Sansovino separately.
The Colossus of Barletta is a large bronze statue of a Roman emperor, nearly three times life size in Barletta, Apulia, Italy. It is a Late Antique statue, but the date, identity of the emperor, and the original location of the statue remain uncertain. Most datings are to the 5th or early 6th centuries, and many think it was made in Constantinople, and perhaps originally placed there. It is the largest Roman or Byzantine bronze statue to have survived essentially intact.
Francesco Bussone, often called Count of Carmagnola, was an Italian condottiero.
The Basilica of San Vitale is a late antique church in Ravenna, Italy. The sixth-century church is an important surviving example of early Christian Byzantine art and architecture. It is one of eight structures in Ravenna inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Its foundational inscription describes the church as a basilica, though its centrally-planned design is not typical of the basilica form. Within the Roman Catholic Church it holds the honorific title of basilica for its historic and ecclesial importance.
The Horses of Saint Mark, also known as the Triumphal Quadriga or Horses of the Hippodrome of Constantinople, is a set of bronze statues of four horses, originally part of a monument depicting a quadriga. The horses were placed on the facade, on the loggia above the porch, of St Mark's Basilica in Venice, northern Italy after the sack and looting of Constantinople in 1204. They remained there until looted by Napoleon in 1797 but were returned in 1815. The sculptures have been removed from the facade and placed in the interior of St Mark's for conservation purposes, with replicas in their position on the loggia.
Palermo Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Palermo, located in Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy. It is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. As an architectural complex, it is characterized by the presence of different styles, due to a long history of additions, alterations and restorations, the last of which occurred in the 18th century.
The Barberini ivory is a Byzantine ivory leaf from an imperial diptych dating from Late Antiquity, now in the Louvre in Paris. It represents the emperor as triumphant victor. It is generally dated from the first half of the 6th century and is attributed to an imperial workshop in Constantinople, while the emperor is usually identified as Justinian, or possibly Anastasius I or Zeno. It is a notable historical document because it is linked to queen Brunhilda of Austrasia. On the back there is a list of names of Frankish kings, all relatives of Brunhilda, indicating her important position. Brunhilda ordered the list to be inscribed and offered it to the church as a votive image.
Giustiniano Participazio was the eleventh (traditional) or ninth (historical) Doge of Venice from 825 to his death. His four years on the ducal throne were very eventful. He was made hypatus by the Byzantine emperor Leo V the Armenian.
The Basilica of San Michele Maggiore is a Roman Catholic church in Pavia, region of Lombardy, Italy. The building, dating to the 11-12th centuries, is a well-preserved example of the Lombard-Romanesque style.
The Portrait of the Four Tetrarchs is a porphyry sculpture group of four Roman emperors dating from around 300 AD. The sculptural group has been fixed to a corner of the façade of St Mark's Basilica in Venice, Italy since the Middle Ages. It probably formed part of the decorations of the Philadelphion in Constantinople, and was removed to Venice in 1204 or soon after.
The Philadelphion was a public square located in Constantinople.
Byzantine mosaics are mosaics produced from the 4th to 15th centuries in and under the influence of the Byzantine Empire. Mosaics were some of the most popular and historically significant art forms produced in the empire, and they are still studied extensively by art historians. Although Byzantine mosaics evolved out of earlier Hellenistic and Roman practices and styles, craftspeople within the Byzantine Empire made important technical advances and developed mosaic art into a unique and powerful form of personal and religious expression that exerted significant influence on Islamic art produced in Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates and the Ottoman Empire. In addition, Byzantine mosaics went on to influence artists in the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, in the Republic of Venice, and, carried by the spread of Orthodox Christianity, in Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania and Russia. In the modern era, artists across the world have drawn inspiration from their focus on simplicity and symbolism, as well as their beauty.
The Basilica of Santa Maria del Canneto, or Santa Maria Formosa, was a sixth-century Byzantine church erected in Pola under the patronage of Maximianus, bishop of Ravenna. The structure was damaged at the time of the Venetian sack of Pola in 1243, and building material was subsequently taken from the ruins and primarily incorporated into the Marciana Library and the Basilica of Saint Mark in Venice. Of the large, triple-nave church, comparable in splendour to the Euphrasian Basilica in Parenzo, only one of the lateral chapels survives. It constitutes the sole construction in Pola dating to the Byzantine period.