Neues zu den Tetrarchenfiguren in Venedig und ihrer Aufstellung in Konstantinopel

Abstract

The Chiostro di Sant’Apollonia to the east of San Marco in Venice houses a hitherto unpublished fragment of a porphyry column. The fragment can be identified as a part of the columns that once carried the porphyry Tetrarchs, which are today built into the treasury of San Marco. The Pietra del bando on the square in front of San Marco may also have belonged to the same monument. A heal that is missing from the Tetrarchs in Venice was found near the Philadelphion at Istanbul, and the name of the Philadelphion derives from the Tetrarchs being linked in a brotherly embrace; the heal proves where the columns came from and that they had already been fragmented before they left Constantinople. The Venetians may have taken the monument to pieces themselves in order to facilitate transportation, after they had conquered the Byzantine capital during the Fourth Crusade. Alternatively the fragmentation may already have effected in the Early Byzantine period, when the columns, that must originally have been standing in one of the residential cities of the Tetrarchy, were brought to Constantinople for the decoration of the new capital. At that time the columns may have been taken to pieces in order to re-cut one shaft in the form of an obelisk that was also erected on the Philadelphion.