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Re: shining with like...
2004.07.21 11:29
Eutropia was the wife of Emperor Maximian, who reigned jointly with Emperor Diocletian for 20 years. She was also the mother of the usurper Emperor Maxentius (controlling Italy and North Africa 306-312), and the mother-in-law of Emperor Constantius (whose first wife was Helena and whose first son was Constantine) and the mother-in-law of Constantine. By 326, Eutropia and Helena knew each other for almost fifty years, and were best friends for the at least the last twenty years. For Constantine (and Helena), Eutropia was the font of knowledge about the Empire, especially the Imperial holdings--Eutropia and Helena also shared a keen interest in architecture.
In the coming days Eutropia again demonstrates her remarkable (shrewd political) resourcefulness, for example, issuing a law of silence would have never occurred to Constantine were it not for her suggestion.
The spiral columns were not carved specifically for the new Basilica of St. Peter, rather they were taken from two quondam structures. Scholars today do not know where the columns came from exactly, and it is thanks to The Life of Silvester within the Liber Pontificalis that we at least know they came from Greece. The huge bronze columns of the baldechin (by Bernini) presently at St. Peter's are based on the original (much smaller) spiral columns. The original columns still exist at St. Peter's, where four pairs of them frame to upper niches of the four main supports of the dome respectively.
Rubens depicted the spiral columns within a select group of paintings and tapestry designs, hence "The Marriage of Twisted and Column"--Eutropia's and Ruben's paper for the forthcoming Horace Trumbauer Architecture Fan Club Convention.
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