Roman Arches
A triumphal arch is a structure in the shape of a monumental archway, in theory built to celebrate a victory in war, actually used to celebrate a ruler. The classical triumphal arch is a free-standing structure, quite separate from city gates or walls, but the form is often used in engaged arches as well. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, crowned with a flat superstructure or attic on which a statue might be mounted or which bears commemorative inscriptions. The structure should be decorated with carvings, notably including "Victories", winged female figures (very similar to angels), a pair of which typically occupy the curved triangles beside the top of the arch curve. More elaborate triumphal arches have flanking subsidiary archways, typically a pair.
The rhythmic ABA motif - of central arched void flanked by smaller ones - was adapted in Classical architecture, particularly since the Renaissance, to articulate the walls of structures. The voids may take the form of niches or be "blind", with masonry continuous behind.
Roman triumphal arches
The tradition dates back to ancient Rome and is connected to the Senate's custom of granting Roman triumphs. Surprisingly little is known about how the Romans used triumphal arches; the only ancient author who discussed them was Pliny the Elder, writing in the first century AD. They are not mentioned at all by Vitruvius, the first century BC writer on Roman architecture. Pliny describes them as being honorary monuments of unusual importance, erected to commemorate triumphs. By the second century arches were being erected to commemorate other events, such as the surviving triumphal arch at Ancona, erected by a grateful city to commemorate Trajan's improvements to the harbor.
It is unclear when the Romans first began erecting triumphal arches. They originated some time during the Roman Republican era, during which time three were erected in Rome, the earliest being one to Lucius Stertinius built in 196 BC. These appear to have been temporary structures, and none now survive. Most triumphal arches were built during the Roman Empire. By the fourth century, thirty-six triumphal arches can be traced in Rome. Only five now survive.
The arches of Rome became increasingly elaborate over the centuries. They were at first very simple symbolic temporary gateways to the city, being built of brick or stone with a semicircular arched heading and hung with trophies of captured arms. Later arches were built of high-quality marble with a large central arch in the middle, its ceiling treated as a barrel vault, and sometimes two smaller ones on each side, adorned with a complete Architectural order, of columns and entablature, enriched with symbolic or narrative bas-reliefs and crowned with bronze statues, often a quadriga. The festive Corinthian order was the usual one.
Post-Roman Triumphal Arches
Triumphal arches in the Roman style were revived during the Renaissance, when there was a Europe-wide upswelling of interest in the art and architecture of ancient Rome. Between the 15th and 19th century, kings and emperors erected numerous triumphal arches in conscious imitation of the Roman tradition. One of the earliest was the "Aragonese Arch" at the Castel Nuovo in Naples, erected by Alfonso V in 1443, although like the later Porta Capuana this was engaged as part of the entrance to the castle. Temporary examples were erected in enormous numbers for festivities such as Royal Entries from the late Middle Ages onwards.
The Emperor Maximilian I commissioned the artist Albrecht Dürer to design an elaborately decorated monumental arch in woodcut for him (3.75 metres high, in 192 different sheets), which was never intended to be built, but was printed in an edition of 700 copies and distributed to be coloured and pasted on the walls of large rooms. Louis XIV of France and Napoleon Bonaparte both erected arches to commemorate their military triumphs, most famously the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Arches were erected for similar purposes in the U.K., the United States, Germany, Romania, Russia and Spain, amongst other countries. Built to honour and glorify President Kim Il Sung and modeled after the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang is the largest arch in the world.
Temporary triumphal arches are still constructed, intended to be used for a celebratory parade or ceremony and then be dismantled afterwards.
The white marble Arch of Septimius Severus at the northeast end of the Roman Forum is a triumphal arch erected in 204 AD to commemorate the Parthian victories of the Emperor and his two sons Caracalla and Geta in the two campaigns against the Partians, of 195 and 203. The three archways rest on piers, in front of which are detached Composite columns on pedestals. So much debris and silt eroded from the surrounding hills that the arch was imbedded to the base of the columns. The damage wrought by wheeled medieval and early modern traffic can still be seen on the column bases, above the bas-reliefs of the socles.
The arch was raised on a travertine base originally approached by steps from the Forum's ancient level. The central archway, with a richly coffered semicircular vault, has lateral openings to the side archways, a feature copied in many Early Modern triumphal arches. A staircase in the south pier leads to the summit, on which were statues of the Emperor and his two sons, in a quadriga or four-horse chariot, accompanied by with soldiers. Winged Victories are carved in relief in the spandrels.
The Arch stands close to the foot of the Capitoline Hill. A flight of steps originally led to the central opening, as they still do to the Arch of Trajan at Ancona. By the 4th century, erosion had raised the level of the Forum so much that a roadway was put through the Arch for the first time.
During the Middle Ages, repeated flooding of the low-lying Forum washed so much additional sediment and debris that when Canaletto painted it in 1742, only the upper half of the Arch showed above ground (illustration, above). The well-preserved condition of the arch owes a good deal to its having been incorporated into the structure of a Christian church. When the church was refounded elsewhere, the arch remained ecclesiastical property and was not dilapidated for other construction.
The Arch of Titus is a triumphal arch with a single arched opening, located on the Via Sacra just to the south-east of the Forum in Rome. It was constructed shortly after the death of the emperor Titus (born AD 41, emperor 79-81).
The arch commemorates Titus' capture and sack of Jerusalem in 70, which effectively terminated the Jewish War which had begun in 66 (the Romans did not achieve complete victory until the fall of Masada in 73).
The Arch of Titus is in three bays with an ABA rhythm, articulated with a massive order of attached columns that stand on a high ashlar basement. The capitals are Corinthian, but with prominent volutes of the Ionic order scrolling out above the acanthus foliage, the earliest example of the Composite order. Above the main cornice rises a high weighty attic on which is a central tablet bearing the dedicatory inscription.
The entablatures break forward over the columns and in the wide central bay. Flanking the central arch, the side bays now each contain a shallow niche like a blind aedicular window, a discreet early 19th century restoration. The soffit of the archway is deeply coffered with a relief of the apotheosis of Titus at the center. The sculptural program also includes two panel reliefs that line the passageway. Both commemorate the joint triumph celebrated by Titus and his father Vespasian in the summer of 71.
One of the panels depicts the spoils taken from the Temple, while the other depicts Titus as triumphator attended by various genii and lictors. The soffit of the arch depicts the apotheosis of Titus.
The sculpture of the outer faces of the two great piers was lost when the Arch of Titus was incorporated in medieval defensive walling. The attic of the arch was originally crowned by more statuary, perhaps of a quadriga pulled by elephants.Based on the style of sculptural details, Domitian's favored architect Rabirius, sometimes credited with the Colosseum, may have executed the arch. Without contemporary documentation, however, attributions of Roman buildings on basis of style are considered shaky.
The Arch of Tiberius was built to celebrate the recovery of the Roman standards that had been lost to Germanic tribes by Varus in 9 CE. Germanicus recovered the standards in 15 or 16 CE. The arch spanned the Vicus Jugarius between the Temple of Saturn and the Basilica Julia. The Arch of Tiberius is dedicated to Tiberius, due to the the fact that in the imperial period only the emperor could celebrate a triumph, so the victory of Germanicus was celebrated as a triumph of Tiberius. Very little is known about this monument. It is mentioned in literary sources, and it is known from a relief on the Arch of Constantine. It appears to have been a single arch, like the later Arch of Titus, flanked by two columns of the Corinthian order. The foundations of the arch have been found on the Forum Romanum, but nothing is visible.
The Arch of Augustus was the triumphal arch of Augustus in the Roman Forum. Dedicated in 29 BC, it commemorates the great battle of Actium (31 BC) against Anthony and Cleopatra. The arch spanned the road between the Temple of Castor and Pollux and the Temple of Caesar, near the Temple of Vesta. A large inscription was found in the same location in 1546AD, with a dedication to Augustus, so the identification of the arch is certain. Very little remains of the arch itself, but its appearance is known from coins of the period. It had three passageways, the first such arch in Rome, and served as a model for the Arch of Septimius Severus, which was the model for the later Arch of Constantine.
The Arch of Constantine (Italian: Arco di Constantino) is a triumphal arch in Rome, situated between the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill. It was erected to commemorate Constantine I's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge on October 28, 312 AD. Dedicated in 315, it is the latest of the existing triumphal arches in Rome, from which it differs by spolia, the extensive re-use of parts of earlier buildings.
The arch is 21 m high, 25.7 m wide and 7.4 m deep. It has three archways, the central one being 11.5 m high and 6.5 m wide, the lateral archways 7.4 m by 3.4 m each. The lower part of the monument is built of marble blocks, the top (called attic) is brickwork reveted with marble. A staircase formed in the thickness of the arch is entered from a door at some height from the ground, in the end towards the Palatine Hill.
The general design with a main part structured by detached columns and an attic with the main inscription above is modelled after the example of the Arch of Septimius Severus on the Roman Forum. It has been suggested that the lower part of the arch is re-used from an older monument, probably from the times of the emperor Hadrian (Conforto et al., 2001; for a defence of the view that the whole arch was constructed in the 4th century.
The arch spans the Via Triumphalis, the way taken by the emperors when they entered the city in triumph. This route started at the Campus Martius, led through the Circus Maximus and around the Palatine Hill; immediately after the Arch of Constantine, the procession would turn left at the Meta Sudans and march along the Via Sacra to the Forum Romanum and on to the Capitoline Hill, passing both the Arches of Titus and Septimius Severus.
During the Middle Ages, the Arch of Constantine was incorporated into one of the family strongholds of ancient Rome. Works of restoration were first carried out in the 18th century; the last excavations have taken place in the late 1990s, just before the Great Jubilee of 2000.
The decoration of the arch heavily uses parts of older monuments, which are given a new meaning in the context of the Constantinian building. As it celebrates the victory of Constantine, the new "historic" friezes illustrating his campaign in Italy convey the central meaning: the praise of the emperor, both in battle and in his civilian duties. The other imagery supports this purpose: decoration taken from the "golden times" of the Empire under Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius places Constantine next to these "good emperors", and the content of the pieces evokes images of the victorious and pious ruler.
Another explanation given for the re-use is the short time between the start of construction (late 312 at the earliest) and the dedication (summer 315), so the architects used existing artwork to make up for the lack of time to create new art. As yet another possible reason, it has often been suggested that the Romans of the 4th century lacked the artistic skill to produce acceptable artwork and therefore plundered the ancient buildings to adorn their contemporary monuments. This interpretation has become less prominent in more recent times, as the art of Late Antiquity has been appreciated in its own right. It is possible that a combination of those explanations is correct.
Attic
Above the middle archway, the main inscription takes the most prominent place of the attic. It is identical on both sides of the arch.
Flanking the inscription on both sides, there are pairs of relief panels above the minor archways, 8 in total. They were taken from an unknown monument erected in honour of Marcus Aurelius, and show (north side, left to right) the emperor's return to Rome after the campaign (adventus), the emperor leaving the city and saluted by a personification of the Via Flaminia, the emperor distributing money among the people (largitio), the emperor interrogating a German prisoner, (south side, left to right) a captured enemy chieftain led before the emperor, a similar scene with other prisoners, the emperor speaking to the troops (adlocutio), and the emperor sacrificing pig, sheep and bull (suovetaurilia).
Together with three panels now in the Capitoline Museum, the reliefs were probably taken from a triumphal monument commemorating Marcus Aurelius' war against the Sarmatians from 169 175, which ended with his triumphant return in 176. On the largitio panel, the figure of Marcus Aurelius' son Commodus has been eradicated after the latter's damnatio memoriae. On top of each of the columns stand marble statues of Dacian prisoners from the times of Trajan, probably taken from the Forum of Trajan.
From the same time date the two large (3 m high) panels decorating the attic on the small sides of the arch, showing scenes from the emperor's Dacian Wars. Together with the two reliefs on the inside of the central archway, they came from a large frieze celebrating the Dacian victory. The original place of this frieze was either the Forum of Trajan, as well, or the barracks of the emperor's horse guard on the Caelius.
The general layout of the main facade is identical on both sides of the arch. It is divided by four columns of Corinthian order made of Numidian yellow marble (giallo antico), one of which has been transferred into the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano and was replaced by a white marble column. The columns stand on bases showing victory figures on front, and captured barbarians and Roman soldiers on the sides.
The spandrels of the main archway are decorated with reliefs depicting victory figures with trophies, those of the smaller archways show river gods. Column bases and spandrel reliefs are from the times of Constantine.
Above each lateral archway are pairs of round reliefs dated to the times of Emperor Hadrian. They display scenes of hunting and sacrificing: (north side, left to right) hunt of a boar, sacrifice to Apollo, hunt of a lion, sacrifice to Hercules, (south side, left to right) departure for the hunt, sacrifice to Silvanus, hunt of a bear, sacrifice to Diana. The head of the emperor (originally Hadrian) has been reworked in all medallions: on the north side, into Constantine in the hunting scenes and into Licinius or Constantius I in the sacrifice scenes; on the south side, vice versa. The reliefs, c. 2 m in diameter, were framed in porphyry; this framing is only extant on the right side of the northern facade.
Similar medallions, this time of Constantinian origin, are placed on the small sides of the arch; on the eastern side, showing the Sun rising, and on the western side, the Moon, both on chariots. The main piece from the time of Constantine is the "historical" relief frieze running around the monument under the round panels, one strip above each lateral archway and at the small sides of the arch. These reliefs depict scenes from the Italian campaign of Constantine against Maxentius which was the reason for the construction of the monument.
The frieze starts at the western side with the "Departure from Milan". It continues on the southern, "outward" looking face, with the siege of a city, probably Verona, which was of great importance to the war in Northern Italy; also on that face, the Battle of Milvian Bridge with Constantine's army victorious and the enemy drowning in the river Tiber. On the eastern side, Constantine and his army enter Rome; the artist seems to have avoided using imagery of the triumph, as Constantine probably did not want to be shown triumphant over the Eternal City. On the northern face, looking "towards" the city, two strips with the emperor's actions after taking possession of Rome: Constantine speaking to the citizens on the Forum Romanum, and distributing money to the people.
In the central archway, there is one large panel of Trajan's Dacian War on each wall. Inside the lateral archways are eight portraits busts (two on each wall), destroyed to such an extent that it is no longer possible to identify them.
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