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Column of Leo
GPinkerton: New page, hitherto a glaring omission in Wikipedia.
The '''Column of Leo''' was a 5th century AD Roman [[Victory column|honorific column]] in [[Constantinople]]. Built for the [[Leo I the Thracian|Leo I]],<ref>''PLRE'' Leo 6</ref> ''[[Augustus (title)|augustus]]'' of the [[Byzantine Empire|east]] from 7 February 457 to 18 January 474 , the column stood in the '''Forum of Leo''', known also as the ''Pittakia''. It was a marble column, without [[Fluting (architecture)|flutes]], composed of [[Column drum|drums]] with a [[Corinthian order|Corinthian]] [[Capital (architecture)|capital]], surmounted by a statue of the emperor.<ref name=":0">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>
The column no longer exists, but fragments belonging to it were discovered in the mid-20th century in the grounds of the [[Topkapı Palace]], including the capital and the [[Impost (architecture)|impost]] block atop it, a complete column drum and some parts of a second, and the statue's pedestal, which was originally separated from the impost by a missing plinth. The remains are visible in the second courtyard of the [[Topkapı Palace|Topkapı]] complex. The column's own [[Socle (architecture)|socle]], pedestal, and base are lost. The statue too may be lost, or it may be the bronze statue now known as the [[Colossus of Barletta]] in Italy.<ref name=":0" />
The column's existence in the Forum of Leo, near the Topkapı Palace, is attested by mentions in several [[Medieval Greek|Byzantine Greek]] texts: the ''[[Patria of Constantinople]]'', the ''[[Parastaseis syntomoi chronikai]]'',<ref>''Parastaseis'' 67:
Ὁ Πιττάκης ὁ λεγόμενος Λέων ὁ μέγας ἐστὶν.
'The so called Pittakis is Leo the Elder'.</ref> and [[George Kedrenos|George Cedrenus]]. According to [[John the Lydian|John Lydus]], the Forum of Leo, where the column was, was at the ''pittakia''.<ref></ref> According to the ''Patria'', the column of Leo was dedicated in his honour by a sister of his called Euphemia,<ref>''PLRE'' Euphemia 3</ref><ref name=":0" /> while Cedrenus mentions Leo's wife [[Verina]];<ref>George Cedrenus, I, 563, 18:
Ὅτι ὁ εἰς τὰ Πιττάκια κίων στήλην ἔχει Λέοντος τοῦ τῆς Βερίνης ἀνδρός
'The column in the Pittakia has a statue of Leo, the husband of Verina'.</ref> no record of any dedicatory inscription has been preserved.<ref name=":0" /> The column no longer existed when [[Petrus Gyllius]] was writing his ''De Topographia Constantinopoleos et de illius antiquitatibus libri IV''. in the 1540s.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>
After the discovery of the various fragments around around the column's site, Byzantinist and archaeologist Urs Peschlow determined the fragments to be related to one another and published a reconstruction of the Column of Leo in 1986. In it he argued the Colossus of Barletta, a much restored Late Antique bronze statue of an emperor in armour, came originally from the summit the Column of Leo, on account of its fitting the proportions of the reconstructed column.<ref name=":1"></ref> It has elsewhere been suggested that the 1561 drawing by [[Melchior Lorck]] of the reliefs of an honorific column pedestal, usually believed to show the now-obscured pedestal of the extant [[Column of Constantine]], could show instead the vanished pedestal of Leo's column.<ref></ref>
According to Peschlows's reconstruction, the column would have been between 21 and 26 m tall, without its statue, with a column shaft of about 15 m made up of eight drums, and a socle, pedestal and base of nearly 7 m high.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> These determinations were made by analogy to the proportions of the [[Column of Marcian]]. Leo's column was probably of eight drums; the surviving complete column drum was marked with an [[Eta|Η]], meaning "№ 8" and according to Peschlow, indicating it was the eighth drum.<ref name=":1" /> The top of the drum is somewhat concave, to bed in the capital above. Carved representations of laurel wreaths surround one edge of the surviving drums of the column shaft. The joins between the drums were concealed by these sculpted wreaths. Each wreath had in its centre a medallion at the "forehead" of the wreath inscribed with a wreathed Christian symbol related to the [[Chi Rho]] and resembling the [[IX monogram]].<ref name=":0" />
The capital, more than two metres high, and nearly 3 m broad, tapers towards a diameter at its bottom of 1.78 m, similar to the thickness of the column drums below, which measure 1.79 m at their bottom and at the top, where the wreath is measure 2.10 m.
The preserved column drums show that the 34 cm broad wreaths concealed joins fixed by three or more metal dowels, whose holes survive. The capital too was attached by dowels: four connected it with the impost block above.
The impost block, over a metre high and nearly 3 m wide at the top, has a frieze of vegetal designs of [[Acanthus (ornament)|acanthus]] leaves. On its upper side are four dowel holes in a recessed area and numerous other rectangular holes for attachments. Another surviving marble block fits the attachment above the impost block, this block itself has four dowels for the attachment of a plinth above. This plinth will have carried the statue and was fixed with metal cramps on its sides.
With its laurel wreaths connecting sections of column drums, the Column of Leo recalls the porphyry Column of Constantine, while the Column of Marcian is the closest stylistic parallel to the capital.<ref name=":0" />
[[File:TopkapiSarayi-SecondoCortile-ColonnaLeoneImpostaBis.jpg|thumb|660x660px|Impost block from the Column of Leo, in the gardens of the Topkap[[Topkapı Palace|ı]] ]]
[[File:Second Court Topkapi 2007 80.JPG|thumb|660x660px|Column drum, probably the uppermost of eight, from the Column of Leo, in the gardens of the Topkap[[Topkapı Palace|ı]] ]]
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The column no longer exists, but fragments belonging to it were discovered in the mid-20th century in the grounds of the [[Topkapı Palace]], including the capital and the [[Impost (architecture)|impost]] block atop it, a complete column drum and some parts of a second, and the statue's pedestal, which was originally separated from the impost by a missing plinth. The remains are visible in the second courtyard of the [[Topkapı Palace|Topkapı]] complex. The column's own [[Socle (architecture)|socle]], pedestal, and base are lost. The statue too may be lost, or it may be the bronze statue now known as the [[Colossus of Barletta]] in Italy.<ref name=":0" />
The column's existence in the Forum of Leo, near the Topkapı Palace, is attested by mentions in several [[Medieval Greek|Byzantine Greek]] texts: the ''[[Patria of Constantinople]]'', the ''[[Parastaseis syntomoi chronikai]]'',<ref>''Parastaseis'' 67:
Ὁ Πιττάκης ὁ λεγόμενος Λέων ὁ μέγας ἐστὶν.
'The so called Pittakis is Leo the Elder'.</ref> and [[George Kedrenos|George Cedrenus]]. According to [[John the Lydian|John Lydus]], the Forum of Leo, where the column was, was at the ''pittakia''.<ref></ref> According to the ''Patria'', the column of Leo was dedicated in his honour by a sister of his called Euphemia,<ref>''PLRE'' Euphemia 3</ref><ref name=":0" /> while Cedrenus mentions Leo's wife [[Verina]];<ref>George Cedrenus, I, 563, 18:
Ὅτι ὁ εἰς τὰ Πιττάκια κίων στήλην ἔχει Λέοντος τοῦ τῆς Βερίνης ἀνδρός
'The column in the Pittakia has a statue of Leo, the husband of Verina'.</ref> no record of any dedicatory inscription has been preserved.<ref name=":0" /> The column no longer existed when [[Petrus Gyllius]] was writing his ''De Topographia Constantinopoleos et de illius antiquitatibus libri IV''. in the 1540s.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>
After the discovery of the various fragments around around the column's site, Byzantinist and archaeologist Urs Peschlow determined the fragments to be related to one another and published a reconstruction of the Column of Leo in 1986. In it he argued the Colossus of Barletta, a much restored Late Antique bronze statue of an emperor in armour, came originally from the summit the Column of Leo, on account of its fitting the proportions of the reconstructed column.<ref name=":1"></ref> It has elsewhere been suggested that the 1561 drawing by [[Melchior Lorck]] of the reliefs of an honorific column pedestal, usually believed to show the now-obscured pedestal of the extant [[Column of Constantine]], could show instead the vanished pedestal of Leo's column.<ref></ref>
According to Peschlows's reconstruction, the column would have been between 21 and 26 m tall, without its statue, with a column shaft of about 15 m made up of eight drums, and a socle, pedestal and base of nearly 7 m high.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> These determinations were made by analogy to the proportions of the [[Column of Marcian]]. Leo's column was probably of eight drums; the surviving complete column drum was marked with an [[Eta|Η]], meaning "№ 8" and according to Peschlow, indicating it was the eighth drum.<ref name=":1" /> The top of the drum is somewhat concave, to bed in the capital above. Carved representations of laurel wreaths surround one edge of the surviving drums of the column shaft. The joins between the drums were concealed by these sculpted wreaths. Each wreath had in its centre a medallion at the "forehead" of the wreath inscribed with a wreathed Christian symbol related to the [[Chi Rho]] and resembling the [[IX monogram]].<ref name=":0" />
The capital, more than two metres high, and nearly 3 m broad, tapers towards a diameter at its bottom of 1.78 m, similar to the thickness of the column drums below, which measure 1.79 m at their bottom and at the top, where the wreath is measure 2.10 m.
The preserved column drums show that the 34 cm broad wreaths concealed joins fixed by three or more metal dowels, whose holes survive. The capital too was attached by dowels: four connected it with the impost block above.
The impost block, over a metre high and nearly 3 m wide at the top, has a frieze of vegetal designs of [[Acanthus (ornament)|acanthus]] leaves. On its upper side are four dowel holes in a recessed area and numerous other rectangular holes for attachments. Another surviving marble block fits the attachment above the impost block, this block itself has four dowels for the attachment of a plinth above. This plinth will have carried the statue and was fixed with metal cramps on its sides.
With its laurel wreaths connecting sections of column drums, the Column of Leo recalls the porphyry Column of Constantine, while the Column of Marcian is the closest stylistic parallel to the capital.<ref name=":0" />
[[File:TopkapiSarayi-SecondoCortile-ColonnaLeoneImpostaBis.jpg|thumb|660x660px|Impost block from the Column of Leo, in the gardens of the Topkap[[Topkapı Palace|ı]] ]]
[[File:Second Court Topkapi 2007 80.JPG|thumb|660x660px|Column drum, probably the uppermost of eight, from the Column of Leo, in the gardens of the Topkap[[Topkapı Palace|ı]] ]]
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March 07, 2020 at 04:27PM
