Theodosius, Justinian, or Heraclius?

Abstract

In an article in The Art Bulletin, xli, 1959, Phyllis Williams Lehmann attempted to show that the drawing of a Byzantine rider in Budapest (Fig. 1) was taken from a lost medallion commemorating Theodosius the Great.1. The orthodox view, that the drawing was of the equestrian statue of Justinian (itself a reused statue of the Theodosian period) set up on a column outside S. Sophia at Constantinople, was reiterated by Cyril Mango,2 but his arguments failed to satisfy Lehmann.3 What neither observed, however, is that Piero della Francesca used a version of the drawing in the fresco cycle in S. Francesco in Arezzo, the Victory of Heracclius over Chosroes (Fig. 2), completed by 1466.4