Carmagnola (Venice)
{{Short description|Byzantine sculpture in Venice, Italy}}
{{Infobox artwork
| title = Carmagnola
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| image = Porphyry head of Justinian I (cropped).jpg
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| year = possibly 6th-century AD
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| medium = porphyry
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| subject = possibly Emperor Justinian I
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| museum = St Mark's Basilica
| city = Venice
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Carmagnola or la Carmagnola is the traditional name of a porphyry head of a late Roman emperor, widely thought to represent Justinian, now placed on the external balustrade of St Mark's Basilica in Venice.
Description
The Diadem unambiguously identifies the head as that of a late Roman emperor, and on stylistic grounds it has been dated between the 4th and 6th centuries, with several scholars identifying it as a depiction of Justinian. The flattened nose is ostensibly the result of damage and subsequent repolishing.{{cite web|author=Yuri Marano|website=Last Statues of Antiquity (LSA Database), University of Oxford|title=Discussion: Porphyry head of emperor ('Justinian'). From Constantinople (now in Venice). Early sixth century.|url=http://laststatues.classics.ox.ac.uk/database/discussion.php?id=826|date=2012}} It is "one of the most significant" of the ornamental trophies that adorn the Basilica's facade,{{cite web|website=Basilica di San Marco|title=The West Facade|url=http://www.basilicasanmarco.it/basilica/scultura/la-decorazione-delle-facciate/la-facciata-occidentale/?lang=en|author=Procuratoria di San Marco di Venezia|date=2020}} looking straight into the direction of Constantinople.
A headless porphyry statue kept at the Archiepiscopal Museum in Ravenna has been hypothesized to belong to the same original.{{cite journal|journal=American Journal of Archaeology|volume=XVII|title=RAVENNA - A Porphyry Statue and a Head in Venice|date=1918|page=136}}
History
The head may come from the Philadelphion in Constantinople, the original location of the Portrait of the Four Tetrarchs that is now just below on the Basilica's Piazzetta facade. It was "almost certainly" brought to Venice as part of the loot from the Sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204 CE.
The condottiere Francesco Bussone da Carmagnola was beheaded on 5 May 1432 on the Piazzetta, where his head was presumably left exposed for some time, leading to the sculpture's traditional nickname.
File:San Marco in Venice 3.jpg|Side facade of St Mark's Basilica, with Carmagnola at the far left of the upper-level railing
File:Carmagnola 3.jpg|The Piazzetta viewed from behind Carmagnola
File:Carmagnola 1.jpg
References
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Category:6th-century sculptures
Category:Roman sculpture portraits of emperors
Category:Stone sculptures in Italy