It was a truly colossal undertaking to make this one-to-one scale model of the famous statue of Constantine. We'll talk about the original construction of the statue, where it was located, how it was found, and then why this model was made now, and it's on display in Milan. Wow, look at this scale. It's absolutely colossal. You can imagine this was originally seated inside the Basilica of Mechcentius in the Roman form. This is the first time that we've ever been reconstructed to its original heights. It is so impressive. It's been some time just admiring how impressive this model is. It's about 36 feet high. And what we have here is integrations of these original pieces, these 10 original pieces, which are the highlight of the Capitoline Museum's adventure. But now we have copies of those original pieces that have been integrated thanks to new technology, thanks to photogrammetry and laser printing, we can now admire from this, these fragments, the real deal, just how colossal the statues really were in Imperial Rome. It is awe-inspiring, and we can only think of just how more magnificent the original would have been, but we're lucky to have this experience today in the flesh as it were. And we can see here the exposed flesh parts, and we can see the rest is covered in drapery. This is the restoration we'll explore today. This colossal statue is the highlight in a new exhibition hosted by the Prada Foundation in Milan. I'm here in Prada, where you have an incredible area, we qualified, it was a warehouse district, and some of these amazing spaces are designed by Rem Coolhouse, and they have avant-garde, cutting edge contemporary art exhibitions. They also have on-occasion exhibitions that include antiquity. Every time I hear that one of those exhibitions is taking place, I make a b-line from Rome to Milan. And in this case here, you have recycled beauty, which is an exhibition that addresses important issues of today, like sustainability and recycling, and cancel culture. It's a really exciting opportunity to explore the history of antiquity of the Roman Empire primarily, and to see it, re-qualified, to see it, engaging with contemporary discourse. It is always a treat to come up to the Prada Foundation. Okay, let's get back to the colossus. The statue consists of these ten pieces, now in the Capillan Museum's courtyard, five lower limbs, three upper limbs, a torso, and a head that has been re-carved. And we can ask, what happened to the rest of the statue? The statue was acrylithic. That means the exposed flesh, the head, the arms, the legs of the colossus, were carved from white marble. But the rest of the body consisted of a brick core, or a wooden framework, and even metal rods, or a bit of all of that. Covered with cloth or stucco, or gilded bronze pieces, for the parts of the body that were not exposed. Here's an example of a more modest restoration. Here we have an ancient statue, in the National Museum, in Calabria, registered in Calabria. And what you have is the exposed flesh of the hand, and the head, in marble. But the rest has been reconstructed as being clothed in clothing, in real drapery. This was often the case for acrylithic statues. The enthroned figure would have originally been 35 to 40 feet high. It meant that the architectural space, in which it was located in Tiquiti, had to be monumental. It was found, in fact, in the monumental Basilica of Maccentius, one of the last great buildings to be constructed in the Forum area. It was started by the Emperor Maccentius in 307. He was killed at the Battle of the Millivian Bridge by the forces of Constantine in 312. The structure was then completed by Constantine, and we know that he added at that time an axe on the short end. And that is where the Constantine Colossal Statue was accommodated. And it was rediscovered there in 1486. And it became hugely influential to artists in the Renaissance time, who frequently studied it, and drew it. And it's one of the great pieces in the Capillan Museums today. As we fly over this magnificent ancient-rome, live reconstruction of Rome from the Colosseum, past the Temple of Venus and Rome, we see just how appropriate it was to put such a Colossal Statue inside this Basilica, the largest in ancient Rome. Recent studies for the exhibition suggest that the statue is a copy of the seated Jupiter type. From the Jupiter Optimus Maximus Temple, last rebuilt by the mission in Rome, and itself was a copy of the famous statue of Zeus from Olympia by Fidius. So the idea is the pose is determined by those famous statues of Zeus and Jupiter that now Constantine is acting as that godlike figure for Rome reconquered in his day. So the ten fragments are used for this new model for this statue on display. And the big issue, let's say the study that came out, was that the finger extended in the right hand of Constantine has been determined to be a restoration of the Renaissance times. And instead, with this accurate study, they've determined that the finger was originally actually bent, holding a staff or a scepter as we see in the reconstruction. How was this made? Well, you have technology, and you also have a team of scholars that made this model possible. The company is FACTIM, and what they did was to scan and use photogrammetry to reproduce faithfully those ten original fragments, and then with this technology they were able to flawlessly integrate the missing components, giving us this successful integration of pieces. Now 3D printing is made out of resin and polyurethane, and you can see the model today how they've highlighted what are the original pieces and what are the portions that are, quote unquote, invented. To give us this colossal statue, 36 feet high. Another fascinating detail about the head of Constantine is that there are the markings several on the face that indicate it was recarred from antiquity. This was originally an earlier emperor, or maybe even one of the gods like Jupiter himself. We have chiseling underneath the chin around the ears, around the eyes, and that makes future studies of this model possible. Also from this recent study, they determined that the portion of the neck of the statue of Constantine was Renaissance and Date, and it was not included in the scan. Let's keep in mind that there were other colossal statues in Rome, and we've lost the biggest. The colossus that stood by the Colosseum, that was standing at about 120 feet high. This famous colossus of Nero, the colossus that eventually stood next to the Colosseum, moved there by Hadrian. We've lost that bronze statue, but we have a number of colossal statues that add the repertoire of our understanding how the Romans were fixated by bigger is better. We have of course the colossal bronze head of Constantine inside the Capitoline Museums, next to the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, colossal in size. You have the colossal statues from the Basil Caracalla, including this famous Weary Hercules 10-feet high. You have exceptional statues of Dionysus and Hercules found in the Palatine Hill today in Parma. You have the colossal cult statue of the Spasian, the head is still preserved on a grand scale, so we get a sense of how much there was attention to emphasizing and celebrating the larger than life figures of ancient Rome. It would be at gods or emperors that would be deified. As luck would have it, what comes down to us today, the best preserved of all and the colossal scale is this statue of Constantine and today. Because of this exhibition, we now can admire its original scale and I think when you see it in person, you walk around it and that's what I'm so excited to show you is you get a chance to celebrate the engineering, the craftsmanship, the river that was involved in making statues of this scale. Thanks so much for tuning in. I want to take you around for some extraordinary experiences of antiquity. Don't forget to subscribe.