Column of Antonin Piles

The Column of Antonin the Piles or Colonne Antonine ( Columna Antonini Pii ) is a triumphal column high in 161 on Montecitorio, in the north of the Champ de Mars, Rome, the memory of the Roman Emperor Antonin the Piles (138 - 161) by its successors, the Co-emperors Marc-Aurèle and Lucius Verus.

There remain currently only vestiges about it: the base carved in Marble, preserved at the Vatican, as well as fragments of the column of Granite.

History

Construction of the monument

The column was high into 161 near the Ustrinum of Antonin the Piles (enclosure intended for the Crémation). Its diameter was of 1,90 m, and its 14,75 m height (approximately 23 m with the pedestal and the statue of the Antonin emperor which surmounted it, attested by currencies emitted after its death). The red block of Granite had been extracted beforehand into 106, as an inscription of carrier attests it located at the base. The barrel was entirely smooth, contrary to that of the two other triumphal columns preserved at Rome until our days, the Colonne Trajane and the Colonne of richly decorated Marc-Aurèle, both of scenes in bottom and high reliefs.

Redécouverte

The base of the column was completely buried with the Middle Ages, but the lower part of the barrel emerged on a height of approximately 6 meters. The vestiges were redécouverts in via degli Uffici del Vaticano in 1703, during demolitions, at the same time as the Ustrinum of Antonin the Piles. They were entirely released, but one immediately did not make a decision concerning the restoration of the column, and the monument had still to suffer, in 1759, of the fire of the shelter under which it was stored. There was still a project of restoration in 1764, but it does not succeed. Finally, of the fragments of the Granite of the column were re-used in 1789 to supplement the Obélisque of Montecitorio.

The carved base of white Marbre of Italy was restored in 1706-1708 and was placed in the center of the piazza di Montecitorio in 1741, before finding its place with the Musées of the Vatican, in 1787, when one decided to reconstitute at this place the solar obelisk of Auguste. It was preserved a long time in the niche of Michel-Angel of the Cortile della Pigna. It is currently in the court of the entry of the Pinacothèque.

Sculptures of the base

The square base of white Marbre is decorated high reliefs on three faces, and of a dedication with Antonin the Piles on the fourth.

Principal face: the apotheosis of Antonin

On the opposite face is reproduced the Haut-relief of the Apothéose of Antonin: the emperor, carrying a Sceptre surmounted an eagle, is carried to the sky with his wife Faustine by a winged Génie often identified with Æon (Eternity), carrying a sphere armillaire where draws up a snake, under the glance of the goddess Rome helmeted and armed with a Bouclier decorated of a figure of Romulus and Rémus nursed by the Louve, and of the Génie of the Champ de Mars on the left, carrying the solar Obélisque of Auguste (Obélisque of Montecitorio). Two eagles accompany them in the skies.

Side faces: funeral cavalcades

The two others faces are decorated scenes appearing the decursio (ritual cavalcade around roughing-hew it, at the time of the funeral). On the two almost identical faces, riders surround of the characters upright: two are armed slightly, and the others carry all the Panoplie. These scenes often were criticized for their lack of space and perspective, but also for the imperfection of their style. The sight as the crow flies of the circular operation encircling of the characters illustrated in breast height misses indeed realism, but it east is far from being deprived of artistic direction: these two scenes see their prospect restored in fact when one contemplates them closely, the glance to the top, in Contre-plongée .

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