ANTICHITÀ TRA ORIENTE E OCCIDENTE NELLA COLLEZIONE BARBO

ANTIQUITIES FROM EAST AND WEST IN THE BARBO COLLECTION Giuliana Calcani From the East, with the collection of Greek and Byzantine objects, started the imperial propaganda that Pietro Barbo (Venice, 23 February 1417-Rome, 26 July 1471) will perfect in Rome with the collection of Roman antiquities in front of the palazzo San Marco, after being elected Pope under the name of Paul II (1464-1471). Constantine the Great, who left Rome to found Constantinople-Byzantium, inaugurated on 11 May 330, was evoked by Pope Barbo when the new Rome on the Bosforo had been conquered by the Ottoman Turks and the ancient capital of the empire had instead risen thanks to the presence of the papal court. Paul II Barbo sought to be recognized not only as the direct heir of Constantine I, but also as a point of arrival in the global history of the Roman Empire, right up to the last Byzantine basileus. Inside the palace, thousands of goods, listed in the inventory of 1457, included precious objects that could represent the excellence of both the West and the Greek-Byzantine world, throughout the centuries: from antiquity until the 15th century. Outside the palace, in platea Sancti Marci, were transferred ancient and monumental works, such as the gray granite basin and the porphyry sarcophagus of Constance, which by their size and exotic material were able to testify the power and vastness of the Roman empire. Pope Barbo had planned other interventions on the ancient works present in Rome and more significant for his ideological project. The lack of consensus, both internally and abroad, prevented the achievement of one of his most ambitious goals for the qualification of St Mark’s Square as a new center of power: the move of the equestrian statue from the Lateran. The identification with Constantine had guaranteed the survival of the gilded bronze, larger than real, but in the years of the pontificate of Paul II it begins to receive more precise iconographic analysis, which will finally lead Bartolomeo Platina, to recognize the character with Marcus Aurelius. It is possible that before planning violent actions, discovered in 1468, the conspiracy of the humanists against the despotic government of Pope Barbo had expressed itself by denying the endorsement to the identification of the statue with Constantine. He would have been the only Roman emperor functional to the expectations, never set aside by Pope Paul II, to affect the precarious balances of the area east of the Mediterranean. The image of the bearded pseudo Constantine in the equestrian statue of the Lateran had triggered a process of iconographic integration with the last emperors of Byzantium, which increased its symbolism. In the payments for the restoration of the equestrian statue of the Lateran would seem to be documented a change of name not accidental to the statue. This change, probably the result of a lively erudite debate, had a profound impact on the project of propaganda wanted by Pope Barbo, whose collection testifies to the wide and ambitious views, as well as a link to the illustrious past of the Roman and Byzantine empires in a wise balance between tradition and innovation.