Od pogrešno protumačenog crteža iz 16. stoljeća do prvorazrednog svjedočanstva Konstantinova Novoga Rima

Abstract

Through the past decades, there have been many attempts to reconstruct Constantine the Great’s Forum in Constantinople – his Nea Roma, and to decipher its intended symbolical meaning. Most of these attempts were fruitful to some extent, but the entire message that the Emperor wanted to convey through the specific arrangement of the Forum has never been fully and clearly explained. Moreover, the Middle and Late Byzantine literary sources have additionally obscured the original message, so each piece of evidence about Constantine’s original concept of the Forum is extremely valuable. This paper should thus be a contribution to the understanding of its original symbolism, based on a piece of evidence that has often been either circumvented or ignored by the researchers: the unique drawing of the pedestal of Constantine’s porphyry column, made by Danish artist Melchior Lorichs (1526/27 – after 1583). The pedestal was decorated with an elaborate relief, whose proper interpretation becomes an important clue for deciphering Constantine’s imperial agenda. So, the paper offers a new interpretation of the relief, and establishes its importance in the symbolical framework of the Forum.