Like the earlier and more famous Column of Trajan, the Column of Marcus Aurelius celebrates the named emperor's military triumphs. Carved in marble relief, the story is a continuous narrative, beginning at the bottom and wrapping around in a spiral up to the top. In about 1585, Pope Sixtus V rededicated both columns to celebrate the triumph of Christianity over paganism. Rather than knock the columns down, he had bronze statues of the patron saints of Rome placed at the top (St Paul here, and St Peter on the Column of Trajan), thus creating a literal and propagandistic message of the Catholic faith. Each column was also given a new base engraved with a dedicatory message of this new meaning.
Dedicatory inscription to Sixtus V
The column stands about 100 ft tall in the Piazza Colonna
St Paul, facing the direction of St Peter's in the west
Dedicatory inscription to Sixtus V
1 comment:
i gotta come to rome
Post a Comment