Colossal statue of Constantine: foot

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This foot is a fragment from a colossal seated statue of Constantine, standing about 30 feet tall. The body was crafted with less valuable materials, while the exposed parts - head, hands, and feet - were carved out of marble. Like statues of gods placed in Greek temples, this image of the Emperor was originally positioned in the west apse of the Basilica Nova of Maxentius and Constantine in the Roman Forum. Jas Elsner points out that this work broke with earlier precedent by depicting the powerful figure without a beard. (For example, note the group sculpture of the Tetrarchs where only younger "caesars" are beardless.) He notes that previous portraits of Constantine showed him with a cropped beard; here he is beardless, embodying the archetypal Roman general from the distant imperial past, a new Augustus, and a new Trajan. Stylistically, this image retains some elements of individualistic portraiture (the hooked nose, for example); at the same time it reflects late Roman trends to focus on symbolic and abstracted elements - the image of authority or the image of spirituality, as indicated by large otherworldly eyes.