Statue of Constantine the Great, Lateran Basilica

What it is

This is a glass lantern slide, made between 1839 and 1939 by an unknown photographer, showing two photographs of a Roman statue of Constantine the Great: a full standing figure in armor and a close-up of the head with a laurel wreath. The statue itself is ancient Roman sculpture, located in the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome, and the slide is held by the Catholic University of Leuven.

Why it matters

This statue is a surviving ancient image of Constantine, giving historians a sense of how he was portrayed as emperor during or soon after his own time. The slide itself shows how later scholars in the 19th and 20th centuries used photography to study and teach about ancient Roman art.

Look closer

• What does the pose and armor of the statue suggest about how Constantine wanted to be seen as a ruler?
• Why might this statue have survived while many others were lost or destroyed?
• What can't a photograph of a statue tell us that the real sculpture might?