DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5253#0732
694
SCULPTURE UNDER ROMAN DOMINION.
with the fiery reliefs close by, from Trajan's arch, with their correct drawing,
we realize this poverty of artistic power.
The tracing, step by step, this gradual decline of so great an art, is a painful
task. Perhaps in no monument does this decadence appear more forcibly than
in the colossal porphyry sarcophagus of St. Helena, the mother of Constantine,
which, because she was a Christian saint, was brought from her mausoleum,
the so-called Torre Pignattara, and now is in the Vatican. It was restored by
order of Pius VI., and twenty-five stone-cutters required nine years to bring the
obdurate material into its present shape. Here (Fig. 295) are the busts of the
emperor and his mother, and a widely scattered battle-scene, in which the pose
Fig. 296. Colossal Sarcophagus of St. Helena, in red porphyry. Vatican.
of horses and warriors is fairly amusing, as we see them suspended in mid-air
and straggling along the surface, while the unhappy enemy kneel, squat, or fall
between them. Winged genii on the lid struggle with festoons ; others sit at
the corners, and a lion reclines on the top.
In Rome, the history of sculpture seems, from the time of Constantine, well-
nigh extinct. But let us not imagine this to have been the case everywhere
throughout the ancient world. I29° Could we take up in detail its unwritten
and scarcely heeded course in Gaul, in Germany, in Spain, and' even in far-off
Brittany, we should find, that, when Rome went down, art in the younger West-
ern world still survived, and through the long night of darkness was waiting for
a new and glorious dawn.
SCULPTURE UNDER ROMAN DOMINION.
with the fiery reliefs close by, from Trajan's arch, with their correct drawing,
we realize this poverty of artistic power.
The tracing, step by step, this gradual decline of so great an art, is a painful
task. Perhaps in no monument does this decadence appear more forcibly than
in the colossal porphyry sarcophagus of St. Helena, the mother of Constantine,
which, because she was a Christian saint, was brought from her mausoleum,
the so-called Torre Pignattara, and now is in the Vatican. It was restored by
order of Pius VI., and twenty-five stone-cutters required nine years to bring the
obdurate material into its present shape. Here (Fig. 295) are the busts of the
emperor and his mother, and a widely scattered battle-scene, in which the pose
Fig. 296. Colossal Sarcophagus of St. Helena, in red porphyry. Vatican.
of horses and warriors is fairly amusing, as we see them suspended in mid-air
and straggling along the surface, while the unhappy enemy kneel, squat, or fall
between them. Winged genii on the lid struggle with festoons ; others sit at
the corners, and a lion reclines on the top.
In Rome, the history of sculpture seems, from the time of Constantine, well-
nigh extinct. But let us not imagine this to have been the case everywhere
throughout the ancient world. I29° Could we take up in detail its unwritten
and scarcely heeded course in Gaul, in Germany, in Spain, and' even in far-off
Brittany, we should find, that, when Rome went down, art in the younger West-
ern world still survived, and through the long night of darkness was waiting for
a new and glorious dawn.