The centuries-old grandeur of Rome once again towers with a copy of a colossus

It may not be authentic, accurate or very old at all.

But if nothing else, the colossal statue of a fourth-century emperor, Constantine the Great, is a newly erected monument to Rome: a tribute to the grandeur of the ancient city and its endless ability to recreate itself.

In this case, the remaking was literal.

The 13-meter-tall seated statue towered over visitors and was painstakingly reconstructed by a Madrid-based digital art group, Factum Foundation, from the ten known fragments of the original sculpture. The reconstructed statue was installed this week in a garden at the Capitoline Museums in Rome, close to where the Temple of Jupiter, ancient Rome's most important temple, once stood.

“When he sees Constantine on top of the Capitol, looking out over all of Rome, he feels extraordinary,” said Adam Lowe, the founder of the Factum Foundation, which originally created the statue for a Exhibition 2022 at the Prada Foundation in Milan.

The head and most other fragments of the colossal statue were discovered in 1486 in the ruins of a building not far from the Colosseum. They were transferred to what eventually became the Capitoline Collection, and nine of those ancient fragments – including a monumental head, feet and hand – are on permanent display in the museums.

The fragments became famous from the moment they were unearthed, says Salvatore Settis, an archaeologist and one of the curators of the Prada exhibition. “They were etched by prominent artists from the 15th century onwards,” he said, adding that the sculpture also attracted the attention of more modern artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, who famously photographed the pieces in the 1950s.

Five hundred years and many more technological advances later, a team from the Factum Foundation spent three days using photogrammetry, a 3D scan with a camera, to capture the fragments in the Capitoline courtyard. Over the course of several months, the data was created with high-resolution 3D prints, which were used to cast replicas, made from acrylic resin and marble powder.

These were then integrated with other body parts – which Constantijn missed – which were constructed after historical research and discussions with curators and experts. A statue of Emperor Claudius as the god Jupiter, now at the ancient Roman altar known as the Ara Pacis, was used as a model for the pose and draping, which was originally of bronze.

“The evidence from those fragments, working a bit like forensic scientists, with all the experts from different disciplines, allowed us to build back something that is absolutely awe-inspiring,” Mr Lowe said, adding that new technologies offered museums new possibilities. opportunities for research and dissemination.

“We are not trying to build a fake object,” he added. “We try to build something that engages you physically and emotionally and that stimulates you intellectually.”

Recent research into the statue has suggested that the statue of Constantine itself was reworked from an existing colossus, possibly depicting Jupiter. Irrefutable signs of reworking are especially evident on the colossal statue's face, according to Claudio Parisi Presicce, Rome's top municipal arts official, director of the Capitoline Museums and an expert on the colossus.

Some experts even hypothesize that the statue was originally the cult statue of a temple dedicated to Jupiter – the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus – which would mean that Constantine's facsimile has finally returned home.

“We can't be sure it's the same statue, but there's a possibility it was,” Settis said. Constantine, the first emperor to convert to Christianity, may have specifically chosen a statue of Jupiter to turn into an icon of himself. “That's one hypothesis,” he said. “It would mark a transition in Western Europe, from the pagan empire to a Christian empire.”

The statue will remain on display in the Capitoline Garden at least until the end of 2025, officials said. Where it will go next, and whether it will stand the test of time better than the broken original, remain open questions.

But at least the makers tried to make it sturdy.

“It'll be as good as what's out there,” Mr Lowe said. “We hope. Of course there were pigeons on his head during the opening. I'm afraid there's not much you can do about that.”