Discovered Digit Determined to be Part of Constantine’s Colossal Bronze Hand
The Art Newspaper has reported that a bronze appendage once believed to be a toe has recently been identified as one of the fingers missing from the colossal (albeit fragmentary) bronze bits of Emperor Constantine in Rome’s Capitoline Museum.
Housed in the Louvre Museum in Paris since 1860s when it arrived in a collection of objects given by Marquis Giampietro Campana, the misidentified toe languished in the collection until a recent doctoral scholar, Aurelia Azema, began building a connection between the dislocated digit and the bronze artifacts in Rome. With the aid of 3-D modeling, a replica of the finger was fashioned and paired with the hand in the Capitoline collection, where the match was confirmed.
Further Reading:
Vincent Noce, “Emperor Constantine’s giant finger found in the Louvre.” The Art Newspaper, 30 May 2018.
Posted by Alexis Culotta