The recycled reliefs
Compare the panels: some are Trajanic and superbly cut, others fourth-century and simpler — an art history lesson in one monument.
NikonZ7II (Paris Orlando) — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Pierre Goiffon — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Álvaro de la Paz Franco — CC0 · Álvaro de la Paz Franco — CC0
No — a low protective fence has surrounded it for years, but you get close enough to read the reliefs clearly.
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The largest and most complete surviving Roman triumphal arch: twenty-one metres of marble with three openings, raised in AD 315 for Constantine's victory at the Milvian Bridge — the battle that redirected history, since it preceded his adoption of Christianity. It carries an irony historians relish: most of its sculpture is not of its own era. Reliefs were taken from monuments of Trajan, Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius and reused, with earlier emperors' heads recut into Constantine's. The likely reason: a decline in fourth-century carving skill, or a wish to bind the new emperor to his predecessors' glory — or both. Compare the panels and you can see the difference in quality with the naked eye. It stands metres from the Colosseum gate, entirely free and ticketless, and takes no more than ten minutes. Photograph it from the Via dei Fori Imperiali side to get the Colosseum behind it in the same frame.
Compare the panels: some are Trajanic and superbly cut, others fourth-century and simpler — an art history lesson in one monument.
Earlier emperors' faces reworked into Constantine's — a close look reveals one of Roman propaganda's neatest tricks.
Between the Colosseum and the Palatine, Rome