Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T16:00:32.485Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

12 - Justinian’s Column and the Antiquarian Gaze: a Centuries-Old “Secret” Exposed

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2021

Elena N. Boeck
Affiliation:
DePaul University, Chicago
Get access

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.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Bronze Horseman of Justinian in Constantinople
The Cross-Cultural Biography of a Mediterranean Monument
, pp. 263 - 292
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×