Colossal statue of Constantine: right hand

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This right hand is a fragment from a colossal seated statue of Constantine, about 30 feet high. The body was constructed of less valuable materials while the exposed parts (head, hands, feet) were crafted from marble. Like the colossal statues of gods placed in Greek temples, this statue 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 of depicting the authoritarian figure with a beard. For example, only the younger "caesars" are beardless in the group sculpture of the Tetrarchs. He adds that earlier portraits of Constantine did depict him with a cropped beard; here he is beardless, embodying the archetypal Roman general from the distant imperial past, a new Augustus, a new Trajan. Stylistically, this image still retains some elements of individualistic portraiture (the hooked nose for instance); at the same time it illustrates the trends in late Roman works to focus on symbolic and abstracted elements: the "image" of authority or the "image" of spirituality, as indicated by the large otherworldly eyes.