Bronze colossus of Constantine
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The Capitoline Museums in Rome hold parts of a bronze colossus of Constantine. The colossal statue of a Roman emperor was probably made in the 4th century but only fragments survive. It is usually interpreted as depicting Constantine the Great.
The museum also holds fragments from an acrolithic Colossus of Constantine, an even larger marble statue once erected in the Basilica of Maxentius near the Forum Romanum, which are displayed in the courtyard of the museum's Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitoline Hill.
The bronze statue was probably made before the year 326. When complete, it may have reached 10 to 12 m (33 to 39 ft) in height. Three large fragments of the statue survive, some with traces of gilding: a large head, 177 cm (70 in) high, or 125 cm (49 in) without the neck (recorded in the museum's inventory as MC1072); a left hand, which measures 150 cm (59 in) (inv. MC1070); and a spiked orb measuring 150 cm (59 in) (inv. MC1065). All three fragments are damaged: the crown of the head is missing, as are parts of some fingers of the hand. Early sources indicate the head was crowned, with the left hand holding a globe (both surviving but now separated) and the right hand holding a sword (both missing). Much of the statue is missing: many bronze panels may have been melted down in late antiquity or the Middle Ages.
The missing end of the index finger, about 38 cm (15 in) long, was rediscovered in 2018 in the collection of the Louvre Museum in Paris (inv. Br 78). It had been acquired with the collection of Giampietro Campana in 1862, but was long mistaken for a toe. It was reunited with the hand in 2021 in an initial five year renewable loan. The end of the middle finger remains missing.
Based on its similarity to the emperor's depictions on coins and resemblance to the marble Colossus of Constantine, the head is usually identified as a portrait of Constantine the Great, who was Roman emperor from 306 to 337. It is thought to have been made before his vicennalia, celebrating the twentieth year of his reign in 326. From other numismatic evidence, others have suggested it may depict Constantine's son, Constantius II. Some have suggested the statue reuses parts of a much earlier Colossus of Nero, although probably not the colossus erected at the Flavian amphitheatre, perhaps later remodelled to represent Commodus, and later remodelled again to represent Constantine.
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