Framing the Sun: The Arch of Constantine and the Roman Cityscape

To illustrate sonif oi the key paradigm shifts of their discipline, art historians often point to the fluctuating fortunes of ihe Arrh of Constantine. Reviled by Raphael, revered by Alois Riegl, condemned anew by the reactionary Bernard Berenson and conscripted by the openly Marxist Ranucchio Bianrhi Bandineili, the arch has .sened many agendas.' Despite their widely divergent conclusions, however, these scholars all share a focus on the internal logic of the arcb's decorative program. Time and again, the naturalism of the monument's spoliated, second-century reliefs is compared to the less organic, hieratic style f)f the fourth-<:entur\'canings. Out of that contrast, sweeping theorie.s of regrettable, passive decline or meaningful, active transformation are constructed. This methodology' has persisted at the expense of any analysis of the structure in its urban context. None of these influential critics has considered the arch as part of a larger utban ensemble or tried to understand how it would have been seen in its particularly flashy setting in the area now known as the C-olosseum Valley. Even the most recent and theoretically advanced work on the arch perpetuates the interpretative amputation of the structure from its en\-ironment in the densely huilt-up late antique city.scape of Rome."'