Late Roman Theodosian Style

stone sculpture

	1. Marble statue of Valentinian II, ca. 390 A.D. (Istanbul: Arch. Mus.) From the baths of Aphrodisias, but based on a Constantinople model. A classic type, but frontal emphatic pose, axiality, square compact head, is typically Theodosian. Valentinian co-ruled with Theodosius I for a while. This statue shows a neo-classical figure style typical of Constantinople, but also hieratic features in the rather symmetrical wide-eyed expression. Note the nervous linearity of the drapery, square compact head, and stiff awkward stance.
	2. Marble relief on base of the Karnak obelisk Theodosius I set up in the Hippodrome in Constantinople. Detail of Inaugural ceremony, ca. 390 A.D. After Theodosius' death in 395 A.D., the fiction of imperial unity yields to the demands of local action in response to local problems. In the ancient past, deepening contraditions would have led to a concentration of power at court and stagnation at the periphery, but the development of private capacities toward the end of the ancient world resulted in just the opposite. The imperial government became weak and isolated. One co-ruler at Ravanna and the other in Constantinople were subject to the competing interests of senatorial factions and army commanders. Theodosius is also associated with Rome's official adoption of Christian ideology. The result of both was an removed courtly art that drew upon Senatorial neo-classicism, imperial hieratic values, and its content from the ecclesiastical synthesis.
	3. Marble relief from the base of the obelisk of Theodosius I in Constantinople, ca. 390 A.D. Anti-naturalistic, frontal, hierarchical. Complete frontality, with symmetrical isocephalic (difficult way of saying their heads are all the same of equal height) figures flanking the emperor. A rhythmic pattern of hierarchical rank, and salvation becomes a function of one's position in that hierarchy.
	4. Base relief detail from the column of Theodosius. A court ceremony at which Theodosius, flanked by family and officials, holds the crown of victory. In foreground are dancing girls accompanied by portable organs.
	5. Marble statue of Empress Aelia Flaccilla, ca. 386 A.D., Cyprus (Paris: Cab. des Med.) 78 cm. tall. Aelia Faccilla was Theodosius' first wife. She is wearing a double band pearl diadem, a long sleeved tunic, a dalmatic and palla. Although there are hieratic features seen her stiff formal pose and linear heavy drapery, the neo-classicism is unmistakable. The senatorial order slowly gains control over the imperial office, constrains the scope of its activity to serve its own parochial interests, and brings to bear a neo-classical self-absorbed "beautiful style."
	6. Marble portrait bust of a man, Rome, ca. 400 A.D. (Rome: Mus. Maz.) 0.30 m. tall. This person is probably a member of the imperial family, perhap Julian's nephew. Note the use of rather severe stylization to convey a frontal beauty which is almost a caricature of classicism. Here is an inorganic abstract design of lines and surfaces in which formal order looses contact with the real world.
	7. Marble statue head of a consul, from the Gardens of Licinius in Rome,ca. 400 A.D. (Rome: Pal. dei Conserv.) Height of entire statue is 2.36 m. The hair and surface refinement are a neo-classical overlay on such hieratic and expressive traits as the hugh deeply drilled eyes, furrows and dramatic brows.
	8. Marble portrait bust of Arcadius, Constantinople, ca. 395-400 A.D. (Istanbul: Arch. Mus.) 32.5 cm. Arcadius' succession to Theodosius in the Eastern Roman Empire in 395 marks the de facto separation of the Empire into an Eastern, Greek-speaking, half and a Western, officially Latin-speaking, half. Arcadius was dominated by the courtly, largely senatorial, aristocracy. Although the bust's contour is expressive, the calm feeling, the technical refinement and concern for formal beauty are classical. On the other hand, the nervous tension, inorganic traits, and linear stylizations, as with the eyebrows, and the frontal gaze recall the hieratic style. There is also a firm integration of the whole with a feeling of noble spirituality, even ineffectuality, that seem to reflect the aristocratic courtly culture. Note the double pearl-string diadem.
	9. Portrait bust from Ostia, 5th century. Things were not going well for the Italo-Roman senatorial aristocracy, as the crises to which they had contributed led to a shift of power toward emperors backed by the army with parochial interests. Apparently, this Ostian aristocrat looks to heaven for consolation. The Theodosian style provides the status and dignity of imperial association, perhaps in compensation for the decline in real political power.
	10. Marble portrait bust, probably of Theodora, 6th century Constantinople. The Eastern Roman Empire, centered at Constantinople, showed a remarkable, but ultimately self-destructive, burst of vitality in the sixth century under Justinian, his wife Theodora, and the generals Belisarius and Narses. Theodora was an influential North African woman having a socially unacceptable past, whose brilliant leadership contributed greatly to this last surge of energy that expressed itself in the Theodosian courtly style.