Colossal statue of Marcian. Constantinople, 450-457. Bronze

Restored are: both legs from bottom of tunic; right arm, including elbow; left arm from edge of mantle. Missing are: top of head above diadem, and fibula at right shoulder (which may have been jeweled). The lost-wax casting is extraordinarily thin (3/8-3/4 inch) for the scale of the figure, which may account for some of these losses and for the worn spots on certain surfaces. According to Delbrueck (1933, p. 219), traces of gilding on flesh surfaces are identifiable, although von Heintze (1967) denies this; Delbrueck (1933) also mentions silver in whites of eyes, niello in pupils, and tin eyelashes. The emperor, who is at, or past, middle age, wears the jeweled diadem, two tunics under a cuirass, and a mantle over all; his right hand once held a lance or standard, while his left supported a much larger globe. The full figure is approximately three times life-size.

The face is asymmetrically fixed in something like a grimace, with complicated eyebrows framing the determined stare. A light beard is indicated by chisel marks, while the hair falls in a roll from under the diadem, the strands carefully delineated. The coiffure resembles that of the Theodosian rulers (cf. no. 21), except for the strong omega line over the brow, found only in fifth-century portraits like that of Theodosius II (no. 22). Because of similarities to coiffures of portraits identified with Aelia Flacilla (no. 20), on the one hand, and Theodora (no. 27), on the other, the colossus has been identified with emperors from Valentinian I to Heraclius, and has even been called Carolingian; but the closest resemblance is clearly to the head of Eutropios from Ephesus (no. 55), which has the same crystalline surfaces and etched linear details and the same hourglass outline of large, encompassing curves. Although one is a man of combat and the other appears spiritual, they are products of the same stylistic configuration.

The most likely identification, then, is with Marcian, since the other emperors of equally mature years from the fifth century have identifiable, dissimilar portrait types. Also, as Delbrueck pointed out (1933, p. 224), the base of Marcian's column in Constantinople still bears a figure of Victory in relief with drapery details not unlike those of the Barletta statue, while the scale of the colossus is appropriate to placement on the column itself.

The statue was washed up in the harbor of Barletta in 1309, presumably from an Adriatic shipwreck.

Bibliography: Delbrueck, 1933, pp. 219-226; von Heintze, 1967, no. 331; Severin, 1972, no. 21, and pp. 106-113; Sande, 1975, pp. 75-76.