The Portrait of Four Tetrarchs

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (December 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

The Tetrarchs, a porphyry sculpture sacked from the Byzantine Philadelphion palace in 1204, Treasury of St. Marks, Venice

Missing heel portion kept in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum

The Portrait of Four Tetrarchs is a sculpture group of four Roman emperors, wedged into a corner on the facade of San Marco in Venice, Italy.

The Roman Empire was ruled by a tetrarchy (a group of four rulers), instituted by Emperor Diocletian in 293. The tetrarchy consisted of two Augusti (senior emperors) and two Caesars (younger emperors). The empire was territorially divided into a western and eastern half. After Diocletian and his colleague, Maximian retired in 305, internal strife erupted among the tetrarchs. The system finally ceased to exist around 313.

The Portrait of the Four Tetrarchs symbolizes the concept of the tetrarchy, rather than depicting four personal portraits. Each tetrarch looks the same, without any individualized characteristics. The group is divided into pairs, each embracing, which unites Augusti and Caesars together. The overall effect suggests unity and stability. The very choice of material, the durable porphyry (which came from Egypt), symbolizes a permanence of the kind reminiscent of Egyptian statuary and the early Kouros figures.

The figures are stout and blocky, far from the verisimilitude or the idealism of the earlier periods. The figures are stiff and rigid, their attire is patterned and stylized. Their faces are repetitive and they seem to stare in a kind of trance. This tendency toward the abstract and the symbolic perhaps coincides with the atmosphere in Rome, when the people desired order out of chaos. This shift in artistic style point towards the style of the Middle Ages.

[edit] History

The statues probably originally decorated the columns of the porch of the Philadelphion in Constantinople. They were plundered by the Venetians when the city was sacked during the Fourth Crusade and brought to Venice. In the 1960's, the missing heel part was discovered by archaelogists in Istanbul close to the Bodrum Mosque. This part is housed in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum. As of 2008, there are no requests by the Istanbul government to have the statues restituted.