Head of Constantine I. Balkan provinces, about 325-330. Bronze. Colossal head of Constantine I. Rome, about 325-326. Marble

The head is in a perfect state of preservation, with traces of gilding on the ears and eyes; pupils and irises are modeled in gold. The outline of the neck terminal suggests the head was intended for a statue in armor. The head is frontal, with projecting ears, hair combed forward under a diadem which has a double row of widely spaced pearls and a central jewel. The eyes stare ahead, not upward, under arched brows, and the mouth is straight and thin. The hair is unworked above the diadem.

The oblong shape of the head resembles the later portraits of Constantine, such as the colossal marble in Rome (no. 11), more than the early- or middle-period works such as no. 9, where the face is wedge-shaped, widest at the brows, on a Julio- Claudian model. Other than head shape, this bronze and no. 9 are quite similar, particularly in the symmetrical, patterned locks of hair framing the forehead.

The diadem appears on coins in 324 (M. R. Alfoldi, 1963, p. 93), and the coin portrait types confirm a date in the later 320s. The execution of the head has a provincial flavor, evident in the summary treatment of the surfaces and in the low arch of hair under the diadem, quite unlike any other portrayal of Constantine's forehead.

Discovered in 1900 at Naissus (Nis, Yugoslavia), the birthplace of Constantine, together with some of his coins, and fragments of bronze chariot ornaments.

bibliography: von Sydow, 1969, pp. 23, 35; Calza, 1972, no. 141.

Colossal head of Constantine I. Rome, about 325-326. Marble. Front parts of the head and neck of a fragmentary colossus, other fragments of which can be assembled into the following parts of a human body: right arm and hand, grasping a (missing) staff; right leg from knee downward, including foot; left leg below knee, and left foot. Parts of the chest and a shoulder remain behind the apse on the site. The position of the left foot, with heel raised, confirms that these are parts of a seated figure of an emperor (a metal crown was attached to the brow); marble was used to portray the exposed flesh area, while other parts were executed in colored materials, probably stone, which have been lost. The original statue was over 30 feet high, six times life size.

No modern scholar has challenged the identification of this figure as Constantine the Great, but the date of the work is much in dispute. Its discovery inside, not just close to, the Roman basilica begun by Maxentius and completed by Constantine after Maxentius' death, has recently been confirmed by Buddensieg (1962), and has encouraged a number of scholars (Kahler, 1952; M. R. Alfoldi, 1963) to link this portrait with the immediate period of Constantine's capture of Rome, 311-315. Yet the form and style of the portrait (despite von Sydow, 1969) conform rather to the new coin types introduced at the vicennalia and to likenesses of the mid-320s, such as nos. 9, 10, as Delbrueck (1933) maintained, and not to the heads introduced on the Arch of Constantine (no. 58).

Furthermore, as Calza (1972) has pointed out, while the Calendar of 354 tells us that Constantine completed the basilica, we have no evidence of when it was completed; a dedication at the time of the vicennalia would be fully in accord with the archaeological evidence. Harrison (1967), who supports dating the head to the 320s, has argued that the head and hand are in different marble and different technique from the other fragments, possibly as the result of reuse of a second-century colossus in the basilica—just as Trajanic, Hadrianic, and Antonine reliefs were incorporated into Constantine's arch by recutting of the imperial heads (fig. 9). Such a hypothesis does not affect the attribution or date of this portrait head.

Found in the ruins of the west apse of the "Basilica Nova" at the Roman Forum in 1486 and conveyed to the Capitol between April and September of that year.

bibliography: Delbrueck, 1933, pp. 121-130; Kahler, 1952; Buddensieg, 1962; M. R. Alfoldi, 1963, p. 63; Harrison, 1967, pp. 92-94; von Sydow, 1969, pp. 25-27; Calza, 1972, no. 142.