Portraits of the Four Tetrarchs

Portraits of the Four Tetrarchs, from Constantinople, c. 305, porphyry, 4' 3" high (St. Marks, Venice). Speakers: Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Beth Harris. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.

[@LandonHobbs]

I suspect the abstraction of the figures and incorrect proportions may be explained to some extent by the original setting of the tetrarchs, viz,. atop two marble columns in the Philadelphion in Constantinople. At the tops of the columns, intricate details could not be seen anyway, and the more abstract shapes could serve to render the work more legible to a viewer at ground-level.

[@TheSanityInspector]

They look like they are clinging to each other for dear life, amid the turmoil of their era.

[@SpaceReptilioid]

Nah, they're gays.

[@CoderatheGreat]

For the last point, Diocletian did set up what was called the "Dominate" which phased out the Principate period where the emperor was considered "first among equals," Diocletian made the emperor "lord and master" of the realm, so even though he wasn't Christian, there was still a turning away from the emperor being represented as a human being with a lot of power and more as a sheer divine entity who is above and beyond us mere mortals, which may help to explain some of the abstraction in the imperial imagery.

[@histguy101]

His ultimate successor, Constantine, took on the title "Princeps" like the emperors before Diocletian. Diocletian and his co-emperors also had naturalistic portraits made of themselves.

[@theophano]

Part of the missing foot was found in the 1960's in Istanbul ( Constantinople).

[@fullmetalalchemist9126]

Yep

[@peroz1000]

Another entertaining and highly informative video.More Late Roman art, please!

[@mango2005]

Those caps are associated with the Danubian provinces. The 4th century Western Roman emperors were often from an Illyrian background, including Diocletian, the Constantinian dynasty and the Valentinian dynasty. This is partly because much of the Roman army came from there.

[@yrac5009]

Future art historians will wonder the same about modernism, popart and anime of our age.

[@histguy101]

There are numerous sculpted portraits of Diocletian, including a full statue. You are representing this pophyry statue as representative a "phase," or an "era," or a "rejection of classical realism." That is simply not the case. There are also sculpted portraits of Maximian, Constantius, and Galerius. They are real, naturalistic portraits. Perhaps this particular work represents an Illyrian style, or even Dacian. These were the Danube emperors. It would be like Cleopatra having both Hellenistic portaits and statues, and also Egyptian portraits and statues. They look like two completely different people, yet they are all Cleopatra.

[@kitharoidos1089]

Didn’t Diocletian establish a system where a profession was inherited from father to son? Maybe this lack of meritocracy contributed to a decline in the technical ability of artisans? Just a thought.

[@KinkyPinkFemboiAlex]

I think the way the cloth is done is to suggest armour,

[@sjenner76]

Just to add a point of clarity, the Roman Empire didn’t end with Christianity. While the adoption of Christianity was to have a major and decisive impact on Roman civilization (although it was far from instant), at no point did it mean that Roman Civilization stop being Roman either politically or culturally. Indeed, the Roman Empire was to continue for a very long time. While in the West we obsess over the Western Empire, we ignore the fact that there were two administrative halves to the Roman Empire: the Western Empire (ruled first from Milan under Constantine and then beginning 402 from Ravenna when Milan was besieged by Goths), and the Eastern Empire (ruled almost without interruption from Nea Roma or New Rome, which was founded by Constantine when he moved his imperial court to the East; later renamed Constantinople following Constantine’s death). Following Constantine’s decision to make the East the dominant administrative and political heart of the Roman world, the Western Roman Empire limped on in a subordinate position until Romulus Augustus, the last Western Emperor was eventually deposed by Odoacer, a Scirian (a Germanic tribe) in 476. In 480, Julius Nepos, the last to have any claim to imperial rule over the Western Empire was assassinated by his own troops in a cloudy power play quite typical for late antiquity. Shortly thereafter, Zeno, Emperor of the Eastern Empire and the senior Emperor of the whole Roman Empire abolished the position of Western Emperor altogether to prevent any barbarian claims to the purple. After that, the Western Empire faded from history, with the Emperor Justinian making the last bid to reunify the Empire in mid-5th Century, by which point the remnants of Western Empire had more a faded memory of what it meant to be Roman rather than truly being RomN, unlike in the East. But, that was certainly not the end of the Roman Empire. The Eastern Empire continued to wax and wane by degrees until it finally fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, bringing to a close an unbroken line of civilization that began almost 1,200 years before on the banks of the Tiber River. 19th Century historians ultimately came to call the Eastern Roman Empire “Byzantium” to distinguish it from the West. The name derives from the original name for Constantinople before it was completely rebuilt into the capital of the Eastern Empire: Byzantion, a Greek colony founded by the polity of Megara in about 650 BCE. But the whole idea of Byzantium is an alien construct. The Eastern Romans never saw themselves as anything other than Roman.

[@tonymontana9221]

You know it is wired to hear a "Roman" Emperor is called John, right?

[@histguy101]

@@tonymontana9221 Well, there were Johns in first century. I suspect "John" in Latin or Greek is more like "Iohannus"

[@paoloviti6156]

Very interesting to read and yes they considered themselves to be Roman up to the end with the fall of Costantinopole. There is a flaw with this argument: they are mostly Greek with very little or next to nothing to share with the original Latin speaking people and it's social structure was more and more altered by the massive flow of barbarians. That said altrough the Eastern Empire could claim that they were calling themselves in "romanized" Rhōmaîoi and shared a common background they almost had nothing in common...

[@histguy101]

@@paoloviti6156 That's like saying "Americans are mostly English." They weren't saying they were "Romanized," they were saying they were "Romans," and they were. The "Barbarization" that happened in the west didn't happen in the east, especially after Leo I and Zeno.

[@mozartwolfgang4656]

Christians are boring deal with it.

[@faydulaksono]

what type of helmet /name that tetrach wear on this statue?

[@petitemonsoon1238]

is there going to be a quiz after this video ends?

[@ehonda7831]

can I add subtitles in my language?

[@smarthistory-art-history]

sadly YT has removed the function that allowed community translations.

[@Palm3s-to-palm3s]

what happen to all of there noses?

[@Kaiserohnepurpur]

Highly likely broken by extreme Christians as these four emperors were non-Christian and Diocletian especially is known in religious circles through the Christian persecution which carries his name.

[@histguy101]

@@Kaiserohnepurpur Unlikely. This statue sat atop a column in Constantinople for over 800 years. It doesn't represent Diocletian personally, but the offices of emperor generally. The sculpture was likely damaged when it was removed and taken to Venice, like most statues from Constantinople. Most ancient statues in general are missing noses, along with fingers, hands, feet, hair, swords, spears, etc. They're the first things to fall off, especially if the statue has ever tipped over. A statue that falls on its face is a statue that has no nose

[@Kaiserohnepurpur]

@@histguy101 That's a plausible alternative hypothesis.

[@SethTheOrigin]

Maybe they just couldn't produce classically-styled artwork because it was a period of general intellectual and artistic decline? Why do post-WWII art historians always seem to dance around this idea?

[@smarthistory-art-history]

Rather than dance, many art historians dismiss that idea as too simplistic. One way to think about these issues in a more nuanced way is to recognize that style, whether classically inspired, or a rejection of classicism, has particular meaning and was used for particular reasons and for particular audiences. The sculptor(s) of the Tetrarchs had plenty of ancient sources to copy from had they wanted to. Instead they defined a style that was suited to a particular audience in a particular context in order to convey a particular meaning. The end of classicism in the early 4th c in this context was intentional. Have a look at our video on the Arch of Constantine for more on this issue.

[@tiami3886]

Tetrarchs were the greatest builders in human history.

[@smarthistory-art-history]

That is quite a claim.

[@briansmith9439]

Perhaps the supposition that early Christian art portrayed people in the abstract because of the 'new' religion is a faulty one. The existence of early Medieval non-Christian statuary rendered in a similar abstract way does argue against there being a religious reason for its use in Christian and non-Christian works.

[@ChroniclerOfJudah]

how come you guys didn't acknowledge something happened to their noses?

[@dimiperini444]

I've looked at it closely. You can tell originally they had wide noses and thick lips. Obviously somebody wasn't very fond of this.

[@tnbn55]

@Jakeem And was the paint to show their skin was some kind of red/brown?

[@creepinwhileyousleepin]

Perhaps the quality of the artisans was starting to diminish around that time.

[@joeb5080]

Indeed Greco-Roman art takes a turn in the 3rd century towards simpler, stiffer, and flatter forms, and art historians don't know why. Art history classes always use this sculpture as the prime example of the 3d century change. More anatomical-correct art won't come back until the high to late Renaissance, over a millenium later.

[@jfjoubertquebec]

They look scared oO

[@amiithevampirequeen2828]

very poor work by the roman sculptors who made this what a shame! they will not get a raise this year