Triumphal Arch Research Articles

Titus Novus: Emperor Francis I’s Iconography of Power and Its Reception in Croatia and Dalmatia

The article deals with the perception of imperial persona of Francis I (II) of Austria in Croatia and Dalmatia around 1818 when Emperor visited the two regions of today’s Croatia. There are two principal sources of interpretation of the reign and importance of this ruler: the written and the visual. Until recently, Francis and his co-ruler count Metternich were in Croatian historiography generally considered in negative terms. This text offers a revision of these views. Following the already traditional Habsburg propaganda of the Imperial liberalitas, Francis was in 1818 received by his subjects in Croatia and Dalmatia as a long-awaited Emperor, with new epigraphic, commemorative monuments (triumphal arches, sculptures, pyramids) and, most frequently, with literary compositions in poetry, drama and prose. The examples of such gestures are taken from Zagreb, Zadar, Split and Dubrovnik. Although Francis’ Imperial epithets were various, the author focuses on the Italian variant, nuovo Tito, explaining the connections of the Imperial propaganda with its artistic response at the end of the 18th century.

Writing History, Shaping Images in Later Roman Empire

Arnaldo Momigliano drew our attention on the fact that Christians in Late Antiquity did not try to Christianize ordinary political history, i.e. the imperial realm. Indeed, history writing, all the way to Procopius, remained staunchly traditional. A similar phenomenon is present in visual arts. The absence of Christian themes and symbols on Constantine’s triumphal arch in Rome has often been understood as a proof of Constantine’s phony conversion to Christianity. However, if we look closer at the iconography of imperial art throughout the 4th century, we shall discover that it rarely, if ever, puts an emphasis on religious convictions of the ruler (which may have been taken for granted).

Crkva Sv. Nikole u Puli (nekada posvećena Sv. Mariji)

The church of St Mary at Pula was rededicated to St Nicholas in 1583 when it was handed over for the use of the Greek Orthodox community of refugees from Crete and the Peloponnese. During the seventeenth and eighteenth century, various structures (the bell-tower, the narthex, the sacristy) were added along the eastern and northern sides of the church, several door and window openings were walled in, and the lintel and jambs of the main portal were replaced; however, the main architectural core has remained well-preserved. It has a single-cell structure of square ground plan with an eastern apse, which is semicircular in shape in the inside but polygonal on the outside. The dimensions of the church are based on a module of ten Byzantine feet (c. 31.25 cm); the church is 20 feet wide and 30 feet long, while a 10 foot square can fit into the apse. In the interior is a well-preserved triumphal arch. It is composed of a pair of marble columns with capitals which carry a large, central arch. The composite capitals possess an interesting detail: the centres of the capitals on opposing sides were left undecorated and so it can be concluded that these capitals were intended for insertion in a multi-apertured structure which was screened off with a transenna. Such capitals can be seen on large early Byzantine structures, and two similar capitals are placed in the atrium of the Basilica of Euphrasius at Poreč (mid-sixth century). This detail provides evidence about a technique used in the church’s construction, which made extensive use of prefabricated, often even imported elements of architectural decoration. The same type of marble used for the columns of the triumphal arch was used for the parts of the small trifore window set on the façade. In the scholarly literature to date, this trifore has been considered late medieval, but the carving details are identical to those on the parts of the triumphal arch and altar posts at the church of St Nicholas. The masonry of the wall also points to the fact that it had not been inserted in the sixth-century façade at a later date. In the centre of the apse is a marble block which belonged to an altar base, having four holes which still bear the lower parts of the small posts which originally carried the altar table. The remains of the altar can be seen on the photographs which document the restoration works in 1962. The altar remains were subsequently covered with a new altar structure which was removed during the works in 2000. In 1962, when the filling of the window in the south wall was removed, B. Marušić discovered a part of a marble post with a simple capital which he recognized as belonging to the aforementioned altar. Based on this data, a reconstruction of the altar has been proposed in a drawing. B. Marušić also discovered two stone transennae in the walled in-windows of the south wall, which were smaller than the original structure of the window opening and for this reason he suggested that they belonged to a later intervention. The transennae were removed and transported to the Archaeological Museum of Istria for safekeeping. During the 2000 works, fragments of identical transennae were also found in two apse windows, while a complete transenna was discovered in the walled-in window on the north face which was obscured by the addition of the bell-tower. Similar and identical transennae are found on the nearby chapel of Santa Maria Formosa, the remainder of a large basilica which was built in the mid-sixth century by the archbishop of Ravenna Maximian. In the vicinity of Pula, at least three more examples of similar transennae were found, all of which can be compared to the shape of a wooden window frame from the church of Sant’Apollinare in Classe at Ravenna. A number of arguments suggest that the aforementioned transennae belong to the first phase of the church of St Nicholas.

‘More than conquerors’ (Rom 8:37): Paul’s Gospel and the Augustan Triumphal Arches of the Greek East and Latin West

This paper investigates the social and theological import of Romans against the iconography of the Augustan arches, focusing on Paul’s indebtedness to Greeks and barbarians, the reconciliation of enemies, the victory of Christ on behalf of believers, and his rule over the nations. D.C. Lopez and B. Kahl investigated the iconographic evidence of Aphrodisias and Pergamon when discussing the political implications of Paul’s gospel in the Roman province of Asia. Paul visited neither city, so arguments about the apostle’s interaction with the imperial ideology of ‘victory’ depends more on the ubiquity of the Julio-Claudian propaganda than on any contact Paul might have had with those specific monuments. The Augustan arches throughout the Empire stereotypically depict the humiliation of barbarians at the sites of Pisidian Antioch, a city visited by Paul (Acts 13:14-50), as well as at La Turbie, Glanum, Carpentras and the triple arch at the Roman Forum. However, there were other iconographic motifs on the arches that conflicted with the relentless triumphal ideology of Augustus. They articulated an alternate vision of social relations between conqueror and conquered.

Progress, Progression, Procession: William Kentridge and the Narratology of Transitional Justice

In 1990, the South African artist William Kentridge completed Arc/Procession: Develop, Catch Up, Even Surpass, a large drawing in charcoal and pastel created on eleven sheets of paper that together arch over an area of approximately 24.5 x 9 feet (Figure 1). Typically installed high on a gallery wall, the shape of the work recalls the triumphal arches of the Roman Empire. Indeed, Kentridge may have had in mind a famous instance of triumphalist architecture, the first-century Arch of Titus in Rome, which depicts the bearing away of the booty of imperial conquest, including a menorah and other spoils from the sack of Jerusalem. In an often-cited theorization of the link between “documents of civilization” and “documents of barbarism,” Walter Benjamin implicitly evokes the same scene when he writes of “the triumphal procession [Triumphzug] in which the present rulers step over those who are lying prostrate” (256). Close in spirit to Benjamin’s reflections on history, Kentridge’s cryptic and decidedly non-triumphalist procession nonetheless involves not imperial booty, but rather the detritus of the dispossessed. Most emblematically, on the far left-hand (or forward) side of Arc/Procession, the head and upper body of a hunched-over figure disappear beneath an indeterminate burden that includes cups and bowls, sacks and megaphones, all of which

On the Borderline of Romanesque Architecture: Village Churches of Szatmár County in the 13th-14th Centuries

Abstract The medieval architecture of the region of the Hungarian Great Plain (Alfold) is scarcely known. This paper analyses the northern part of the region, the historic Szatmar county (now part of Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg County in Hungary and Satu Mare County in Romania) where a great number of village churches has been preserved. Presenting the architectural structures, forms of sanctuaries, triumphal arches, decorative motives, portals, windows, and niches, this study concludes that forms typical of brick architecture were in use in the Northern Alfold but not so extensively as in other regions of the country. On the other hand, the forms in Szatmar county show a great variety, on occasion entirely unique versions. These forms are regarded to be characteristic for late Romanesque architecture. Because of historical reasons, the majority of these churches can be dated to the second half of the 13th century to the early 14th century. Consequently it seems that the limit of Romanesque architecture in thi...

Sześcioksiąg w mozaikach bazyliki Santa Maria Maggiore w Rzymie

The main nave of the Santa Maria Maggiore at Rome has been decorated with 42 mosaic panels, presenting the scenes from the Pentateuch and the Book of Josue. The mosaics were created at the time of the construction of the basilica in the first half of the fifth century and thus they are the oldest monumental Bible illustration cycle. Some illuminated codices probably served as a model for the mosaics, but the final result is rather an original conception, linked theologically with the mosaics of the triumphal arch of the basilica. The paper describes the surviving 27 mosaics. Their conformance to traditional Roman iconography is underlined. The main idea behind the cycle is interpreted as an attempt to convince the people of Rome that the history of the People of God, which begins with the patriarchs of the Old Testament, is as glorious and ancient as the Roman one.

Classical Architecture and the Cultural Politics of Cemetery Reform in Early Nineteenth-Century Havana, Cuba

CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE AND THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF CEMETERY REFORM IN EARLY NINETEENTH-CENTURY HAVANA, CUBA Paul Barrett Niell University of North Texas Introduction In an Exhortation of 1805, the bishop of Havana, Juan José Díaz de Espada y Landa condemned the “disastrous effects that have always been produced by the abuse of burying corpses in the churches.”1 The following year, the city inaugurated a new public cemetery for its extramuros, the area outside the city walls [Figure 1]. Designed by French architect Stephen Hallet, the General Cemetery of Havana was built one mile west of the city near the sea on a frequented road in a location between the piers of La Tierra and El Arsenal. The distancing of the cemetery from the lived city was consistent with the belief of reformers that myriad human illnesses were caused by living in close proximity to the deceased.2 Stephen Hallet conceived the new public work as a rectangular space enclosed from the surrounding landscape by a high masonry wall entered through a neoclassical gateway evoking a Roman triumphal arch. Inside the cemetery, graves were organized rigorously in a grid-like pattern and extended from the gateway to a chapel at the far end, designed to appear like a Greco-Roman temple. Architectural historians have noted that this cemetery was perhaps the first mature example of Cuba’s relatively late neoclassical movement.3 Scholars have also studied the work in relation to its principal patron, Havana’s Bishop Espada (served 1802-32), a man of the Spanish Enlightenment who sought to bring aesthetic reforms to the city.4 What is missing from the scholarship, however, are broader considerations of where the cemetery fits in the late colonial material culture of Cuba. The project was promoted by senior clerics, Spanish officials, and local elites through the rhetoric of enlightened reform as equitable, universal, and dedicated to “all classes of persons.” However, few studies get beneath this rhetoric to examine the interplay between imperial objectives, international forms, changing identities, and the requirements of colonial representation in early nineteenth-century Havana. How, for example, was this “general” public cemetery, intended for all classes of persons, conceptualized locally in a colonial environment maintained by the repetitive political and social performances of the Church, State, and nobility? How did the local elite and the general population react to an institutional practice and its formal representation that rudely interrupted C 2011 Southeastern Council on Latin American Studies and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 57 The Latin Americanist, June 2011 Figure 1. Pierre Toussaint Frédéric Mialhe, View of the General Cemetery of the City of Havana, c. 1860’s, lithograph, Courtesy of the Charles W. Tebeau Library of Florida History, Historical Museum of Southern Florida. their traditional funerary rituals and sites of interment? Furthermore, how was the work and it appropriation of Euro-American classical architecture and imagery related to changing socio-economic identities? This article proposes to examine the General Cemetery of Havana of 1806, also known as the Espada Cemetery, as the transcultural product of the late colonial period in Cuba. This approach aims to open strategies for interpreting the material culture of Bourbon cemetery reform in the Americas in general by looking at the complex ways in which classicism was integrated into the colonial scene. The focus on classicism is an effort to study the cultural politics of cemetery reform in Havana. By “cultural politics of cemetery reform” in this article, I am referring to three overlapping ways in which classicism was used in the cemetery: 1) it was deployed to promote the legitimacy of this new Bourbon institution based on assumptions about the exemplarity of classical forms, 2) classicism began to assume a cultural authority over other artistic styles in colonial Havana from the perspective of the local elite and thus reinforced church, state, military, and social hierarchies, and 3) classicism embodied the reform ideals of the cemetery, in particular, the mastery of the self and the embrace of “enlightened” piety. Thus as a formal and rhetorical idiom, classicism became part of elite representation as well as elite cultural capital.5 While examining the relationship between classicism, cemetery reform, and the representation of...

Das Mosaik „Die Begegnung Melchisedeks mit Abraham“ im Langhaus von S. Maria Maggiore in Rom und sein zeitgeschichtliches Umfeld

AbstractThe research in the mosaics of St. Maria Maggiore is reconsidered. The picture of Melchisedek shows him offering bread and wine to the victorious Abraham and, as a focus of the picture, the transformation of the offered gifts into a sacrifice to God and into a prototype of the high priest Christ and the eucharist that was celebrated at the altar. The hypothesis of Sabine Schrenk, however, according to which the antitype (the eucharistic gifts, bread and wine as body and blood of Christ) is already present in the picture of Melchisedek; cannot be maintained. Therefore a couple of specific motives, most of them being not observed up to now, were analyzed: Christ as high priest in the mosaic that shows Jesus in the triumphal arch and its relation to Melchisedek as high priest, God-Father turning to Melchisedek (and not to his gifts) and the dealing with the eucharist in a prominent place. These observations lead to the result that the thematic background of the mosaic can be seen in the Christological controversy, esp. the struggle against Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople (428-431). The series of mosaics of the triumph arch can be interpreted as a Christological concept. Thus the pope Xystus III (432-440) demonstrated his theology stressing the divinity of the child Jesus against the Christological concept of Nestorius. The mosaic with Melchisedek pursues this Christological intention, the mosaics of the triumph arch and the mosaic with Melchisedek are a thematic unity.

The ‘Great Temple of Solomon’ at Stirling Castle

In 1594, a new Chapel Royal was erected at Stirling Castle, for the baptism, on 30 August of that year, of Prince Henry, first-born son and heir to James VI King of Scots and his wife, Queen Anna, sister of Denmark’s Christian IV. James saw the baptism as a major opportunity to emphasize, to an international — and, above all, English — audience, both his own and Henry’s suitability as heirs to England’s childless and elderly Queen Elizabeth. To commemorate the baptism and associated festivities, a detailed written account was produced, entitledA True Reportarieand attributed to William Fowler. It provided a remarkable piece of Stuart propaganda, as testified by many subsequent reprints, including during the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion. James no doubt had in mind the example of the celebrations at his own baptism in December 1566, which ‘took the form of a triumphant Renaissance festival, the first that Scotland — and indeed Great Britain — had ever seen’. Despite apparently being constructed within a mere seven months, the new chapel achieved its aim of being both impressive and symbolic of the aspirations of the Scottish king (Fig. 1). It can claim to be the earliest Renaissance church in Britain, with its main entrance framed by a triumphal arch, flanked by Italianate windows. However, even more significant is the evidence that the chapel was deliberately modelled on the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem.

Kuzma Kovačić - priroda, kultura i vjera kao korektivi modernističke skulpture

Kiparsko djelo Kuzme Kovačića razmatra se u retropektivnom slijedu od početaka u sedamdesetim godinama prošloga stoljeća do recentnih ostvarenja. Konstatira se da je djelo jednog od najosebujnijih kipara srednje generacije u nas trendovski neuklopljivo kako u prethodno “eksperimentalno“ modernističko razdoblje, tako ni u “citatnu“ postmodernu. Snažna baštinska ukorijenjenost u prirodi i djelima kulture i intimistička crta koja ističe osobnu uživljenost u male teme u kojima se zrcali vječnost makrokozma, opredijelili su ovoga kipara da u svim svojim rješenjima traži tragove pojedinca u velikom povijesnom kontekstu kulture, vjere, običaja, politike. Razmatraju se i prvi put uspoređuju rješenja koja je u oblikovanju crkvenih vratnica dao Kovačić na katedrali Sv. Stjepana u Hvaru, s onima G. Manzua na Sv. Petru u Rimu i Sv. Laurentskerku u Rotterdamu, te Emilija Greca na katedrali u Orvietu. Razmatraju se i rješenja u sakralnom tematu koja čine značajan dio kiparova opusa, kao ponajbolja rješenja u novoj crkvenoj umjetnosti u Hrvatskoj i Bosni i Hercegovini. Ističu se i rješenja u okviru tzv. državotvornih projekata poput Oltara hrvatske domovine na Medvedgradu, kipova Franje Tuđmana i Dražena Petrovića, kao primjeri koje nisu mogli zaobići političke kontroverze, često i na štetu trijezne rasprave o njihovoj oblikovnoj vrijednosti. Konstatira se da je i u radovima s intimističkom i onima s političkom poputbinom, u galerijskim komornim formatima i u monumentalnim javnim rješenjima, Kovačić sačuvao izvorno intimističku, zbitu, nereprezentativnu formu koja je silnice usmjerila jezgri, umjesto da je ekspandirala u vanjsku retoriku.

Divinus Cultus Devotissimus. Adrian VI and Papal Ritual

How would Pope Adrian have experienced the ritual system of the Eternal City, a place he had never visited? Although the celebrations of the adventus were of “pompa mediocre”, as the source states, there was enthusiasm among the public for the triumphal arch, the thirty big statues near Porta San Paolo, the tapestries, papal coat of arms, and ephemeral altars with relics along the streets of the city. During Adrian’s pontificate the Sistine Chapel and the splendid Vatican palace halls were also fully functional as the theatre of palatine liturgy. The Pope scrupulously followed the liturgical calendar prescribed in the papal ceremonial, but if necessary he did not hesitate to tone down events because of the financial, political and precarious sanitary situations. Adrian was dedicated to the spiritual power of liturgy. At the same time he was fully aware that he had to play his ritual role as the Roman pontifex maximus.

Padua, its Arena and the Arena Chapel: A Liturgical Ensemble

Previous articleNext article No AccessPadua, its Arena and the Arena Chapel: A Liturgical EnsembleMichael Viktor Schwarz and Michaela ZöschgMichael Viktor Schwarz Search for more articles by this author and Michaela Zöschg Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes Volume 73, Number 12010 Published for the Warburg Institute and the Courtauld Institute Views: 7Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/JWCI41418713 Views: 7Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright © 2010 by The Warburg Institute. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Henrike Christiane Lange Giotto’s Triumph: The Arena Chapel and the Metaphysics of Ancient Roman Triumphal Arches, I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 25, no.11 (Jul 2022): 5–38.https://doi.org/10.1086/718972

What Did Natural History have to do with Salvation? José de Acosta Sj (1540–1600) in the Americas

At the southern foot of the Palatine Hill in Rome, a little more than one hundred metres due west of the triumphal arch erected by the emperor who is associated more than any other with the Christian conversion of the Old World — Constantine the Great – there stands another arch. Relocated from its original position at the eastern foot of the Palatine, more or less directly across from the biggest remaining ruin in the forum — that of the Basilica of Maxentius — it formed the monumental entrance to one of the most important botanic gardens in sixteenth-century Europe — theOrti farnesiani, which were given their definitive shape between 1565 and 1590. I propose that this second arch has reason to be considered as occupying a similar symbolic significance for the conversion of the New World.

Poetry in Motion: A Mexican Vicereine's Verse Travel Diary (1757)

On August 4, 1755, the soon to be forty-second viceroy of New Spain, Agustin de Ahumada y Villalon, Marques de las Amarillas, set sail from Cadiz on the transatlantic voyage that would take him to the New World to assume his post.1 Travelling with him was his wife dona Maria Luisa del Rosario de Ahumada y Vera, their young son, and a retinue of some sixty-six persons.2 They were conveyed by the Spanish ship America, escorted by the Dragon and the Infante, in a journey lasting 56 days. The party landed safely in Veracruz at the end of September and, after two weeks of rest and an elaborate welcome in that port city, began the laborious journey westward (and upward) to the viceregal capital, Mexico City. Their five-week overland journey followed the same ceremonial itinerary that had been traced by entering viceroys since the sixteenth century. It included stops, each with days of festivities, in the symbolically significant cities of Tlaxcala and Puebla. In Otumba, outside the capital, incoming and outgoing viceroy met. After the obligatory visit to Guadalupe and the shrine of Mexico’s patroness, the viceroy entered Mexico City, where he and his wife were treated to weeks more of sumptuous festivities. Among the events were the ceremonies surrounding the two triumphal arches erected in the city, whose elaborate iconographic programs compared the Marques to Aeneas and other classical heroes, in effusions of praise that included, as was customary, recommendations in the art of good government. The story of this journey by sea and land is told in a lengthy poem3 composed by the Mexican Creole Antonio Joaquin de Rivadeneyra Barrientos, and published in Mexico City two years later (1757) with the title Diario notable de la excelentissima senora marquesa de las Amarillas, virreyna de Mexico, desde el puerto de Cadiz hasta la referida Corte...4

Celebrating in the Streets

The arrival of Queensland's first Governor on 10 December 1859 was an occasion for celebration; in the words of Brisbane's newspaper, ‘never was welcome given with heartier zest’. As Sir George Bowen stepped ashore at a temporary landing stage in the Botanic Gardens, he was greeted with an ornamental arch, a semicircular frame covered in flowers and greenery, bearing words of welcome. This ‘triumphal arch’, as it was called, was the creation of Andrew Petrie, a pioneer settler and building contractor, and Walter Hill, the Curator of the Gardens. It was to be the first of hundreds of similar arches erected throughout Queensland for almost a century. They were a regular feature of public celebrations until relatively recent times, marking the arrivals and travels of Governors, occasional visits by royalty, the opening of major roads, railways and bridges, and, to a lesser extent, historical milestones. They ranged from grand, highly decorated structures – often the work of professional designers – erected in the metropolis for royal visits to simple arches of greenery, put up by even the smallest regional communities for special occasions, such as welcoming visiting Governors. This paper takes a closer look at these curious structures and the symbolism behind them for, as Stephen Alomes observes, public rituals provide valuable insights into Australian life, revealing contradictions between imperial loyalties and burgeoning nationalism, indigenous and derivative, traditional and modern.

The Turtledove: a Symbol of Chastity and Sacrifice

I will discuss the symbolical meaning of the turtle dove in representations of The Presentation of Christ in the Temple in European Late Antique and Medieval Art. The turtle dove is included in these scenes because it is the sacrificial bird, mentioned in the Gospels, which was brought forth at the Lord’s Presentation. But since this bird in the Middle Ages was also a widely known symbol of chastity, its presence in this connection must be related to the Purification of the Virgin; an event which is described as immediately preceding the Presentation. In this article the typical High and Late Medieval Presentation will be compared to the earliest extant example of this motif, the one on the triumphal arch in Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, where the chastity aspect has a different nuance. In this latter case the rite of purification must, rather, be related to the Church and its Orders.

Iconography and Identity: Syrian Elements in the Art of Crusader Cyprus

AbstractThe murals of triumphal arch in the Church of the Panagia Phorbiotissa, Cyprus, painted in the late thirteenth century when Cyprus was a Crusader state, adopt an iconography paralleled not in Byzantium but in the Miaphysite churches of the Syrian and Egyptian mainland, and best analyzed in relation to Miaphysite liturgical exegesis. As such, they suggest three revisions to current ways of thinking about the roles of Cyprus and the mainland in shaping the art of the Crusader era: 1) rather than for a 'maniera cypria' or a 'maniera tripolitana', we must look for an intricate, two-way reciprocity; 2) it is a reciprocity not simply between Cyprus and the mainland Crusader states, but between Cyprus and the far larger terrain of Syrian and Egyptian eastern Christendom; and 3) it engages not only style but also iconography and content.

Herkules és diadalkapu. Illusztráció a Rákóczi-szabadságharchoz egy erdélyi szász kéziratban

Abstract The study provides addenda to the interplay of politics and art and the appearance of the baroque in Transylvania, through the presentation of two illustrations whose creation was related to the freedom fights led by Ferenc Rákóczi II (1703–1711). Hydra Transylvanica (1708) written by a Transylvanian Saxon minister Daniel Wolff describes the Transylvanian events of the war of liberation. Several handwritten copies of this work can be found in various Romanian archives. The illustrated work is in Brassó (Braşov, Romania), in the Trausch collection of the Honterus Archives. The title-page of this copy shows a black-and-white drawing of the struggle of Hercules with the hydra of Lerna. The allegory widespread among European rulers, especially in the courts of Louis XIV and Leopold I, was part of the monarchic representation. The ancient hero was also used by personages of Hungarian history to express their power. Ferenc Rákóczi II commissioned a Swedish medallist to make a commemorative Hercules medal during his reign. While in Rákóczi's interpretation of the symbol the prince himself was represented by Hercules and the imperial adversary was the hydra, the scene acquires a polarly opposite reading in Daniel Wolff's illustration calling attention to the struggle between the “Transylvanian Hydra” (“Hydra Transylvanica”) and the “German Hercules” (“Teutscher Hercules”), clearly revealing the political stance of the draughtsman. The other picture in the manuscript is a fold-out supplement showing the triumphal arch erected in honour of Ferenc Rákóczi II in Kolozsvár (Cluj-Napoca, Romania) in 1705. The temporary edifice was the Jesuits' tribute to Rákóczi about to be installed as prince of Transylvania. The historical background to the arch is rooted in the connection between Rákóczi and the Order of Jesus, which has recently been revalued by historians. Underlying the triumphal arch was the Jesuits' effort to separate from the Austrian province, and they relied on Ferenc Rákóczi II's mediation on this issue. Rákóczi supported the creation of an independent Hungarian province both politically and diplomatically. Though the Jesuits' attempt failed, the triumphal arch they erected expressed their political conception. Surviving eye-witness accounts suggest that the gate was an outstanding achievement of art in the Rákóczi age, and although several that-time and recent studies address themselves to the history of its construction and demolition as well as its symbolism and political background, no visual representation has been found so far. After comparing the descriptions and the illustrations in the manuscript, I tried to define the date and circumstances of the pictures. The discord between the contents of the writing and the illustration precludes Wolff's authorship. A further problem is that the drawing of the triumphal arch includes several minute details that are different in various accounts. The Latin verse lines on the back include two distichs alluding to the castles of Nyitra (Nitra, Slovakia) and Görgény (Gurghiu, Romania) which refer to the year 1708 and are not included in accounts of 1705. These lines were most probably written by the draughtsman. The illustrated copy differs from the rest of the manuscript variants at several points, including allusions and additions that reveal the author's pro-imperial position as well as references to the city of Brassó. Therefore, the drawings must have been made by a monarchist copier living in Transylvania under Habsburg rule after the suppression of the freedom fights. This is also supported by an examination of the paper of the manuscript which contains the watermark of the Brassó paper mill and was made in the 1770s.

Saint Peter's, Leo the Great and the leprosy of Constantine

È possibile rialzare all'età di Costantino la datazione di due mosaici situati sull'arco di trionfo e sull'abside della basilica vaticana di San Pietro, sulla base della reinterprctazione delle loro iscrizioni. Sulla facciata della chiesa possiamo anche ricostruire il soggetto apocalittico di un terzo importante mosaico e attribuirlo al periodo di Papa Leone Magno (440–61). Alcune sillogi del VII secolo d.C. ci informano circa la presenza dell'immagine di Costantino accompagnata da una lunga iscrizione in cui si fa allusione alla sua guarigione miracolosa dalla lebbra e al suo battesimo. Questo testo ha evitato la discussione sull'origine dell'AchisSilvestri, che ha una notevole importanza in quanto è il primo documento che attesta chiaramente questa leggenda. Inoltre esso è significativamente connesso a Papa Leone Magno — nel contesto del dibattito circa la supremazia del papa di Roma — e probabilmente con la famiglia di Costantino stesso. Infatti il mosaico fu pagato da Flavius Avitus Marinianus, pretoriano prefetto del 422 e console un anno più tardi, e da sua moglie, Anastasia, che fu probabilmente una stranipote dell'imperatore Costantino.