The final stage in the life of the bronze horseman unfolded in early modern Russia, a self-styled refuge of Orthodoxy. Our rider presides over an ambitious sixteenth-century Russian icon that visualizes the totality of triumphant Orthodoxy. The icon is nothing less than a visualization of the Eternal Tsar’grad. No icons from the Byzantine period attempt such an ambitious representation of terrestrial and celestial Orthodoxy. The icon epitomizes decades of Russian thought about a world without Byzantium. The icon advances a claim for perpetual holiness that was first made manifest in Constantinople, was transmitted to the lands of Rus’, and is eternally perpetuated in liturgical commemoration. The Eternal Tsar’grad icon plays upon a number of tensions. It is both a representation of the feast of the intercession and more than an icon of that feast. It is both a representation of a vision of Andrew the Holy Fool and more than that vision. It is both a representation of Constantinople and a vision of more than that city. It both represents Byzantine history and comes to terms with the end of Byzantium. All of these innovative aspects make it the first truly post-Byzantine icon in terms of intellectual vision and content.

Justinian turned the greatest domestic challenge of his reign (the Nika riots) into a spectacular opportunity for promoting his gloria. He constructed the last imperial forum in Constantinople on the ruins and foundations of the old Augoustaion. Hagia Sophia was the first major element of the new vision to be constructed (532–37 CE), while the triumphal column was the last (ca. 543 CE). No ruler in the premodern era would surpass Justinian’s spectacular accomplishments of either Hagia Sophia or the triumphal column. Justinian deliberately appropriated a colossal equestrian sculpture from the forum of Theodosios. While rulers before him commissioned great equestrian monuments, only he chose to place an equestrian monument at the top of a triumphal column. Like the colossal statues of his predecessors, Constantine and Theodosios, the equestrian Justinian also faced east. The bronze horseman came to command the city’s skyline and define the image of Constantinople. This awesome statement of power became a towering reminder of Justinian and his seemingly boundless might.