Hello everyone! In this video we are going to look at the equestrian portrait of Charlemagne or maybe Charlemagne the Bald. This is a small bronze statuette.
It's just nine and a half inches in height. It's from the Carolingian period and it was made during the 9th century. Now it's either Charlemagne or his grandson Charlemagne the Bald.
But that doesn't change our interpretation of it because it fits with the characteristics of Carolingian art. What we have going on here is that interest in Roman tradition. So remember that Charlemagne is interested in connecting the Carolingian Empire to the Roman Empire.
and being the spiritual inheritor of that. And that is what we see going on in this statuette. So that's why, you know, if it's Charlemagne, great.
If it's Charlemagne the Bald, great. But the intentions here and its representation of Carolingian art fitting those characteristics remains the same. So, right, remember with the Romans, they are interested with the picture. Dane, Emperors on Horseback.
We have our equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius here on the screen. And so these have similarities, but importantly, this is not to scale, right? That Marcus Aurelius statue is huge. Charlemagne, tiny. Now, both of these show Emperors on Horseback.
Both do not use accurate scale. The human figures here, okay, the figure of Marcus Aurelius, the figure of possibly Charlemagne. We'll go with Charlemagne for this video to be consistent. Um, those are too big in terms of their scale to horses. If this was accurate to life, the human figures would be much smaller.
But that scale is used here to show the importance of the emperor, of Marcus Aurelius, of Charlemagne, right? It shows their power, their control through the art. So that's why they're shown so big. Scale is used to show their importance.
But now again, right, scale is important here. Our Charlemagne on horseback, less than a foot in height, right? This comparison to like a hand here, just to give you a sense of scale.
Our Marcus Aurelius, 11 feet, 6 inches, 11 and a half feet. Huge in comparison. What does this tell us about the artistic abilities at the time? We know the Roman Empire had highly skilled artisans and was working with traditions that they had done for centuries, right? Building upon Greek and Etruscan knowledge of art.
But Charlemagne, you know, by the time the Carolingian Empire comes into being, the Roman Empire in the West has collapsed. There's decentralized governments for a long time. We get, we... go into what used to be called the Dark Ages, which we no longer use that term anymore because it's not correct. Dark implied a loss of knowledge.
It's not that there was a loss of knowledge, but there was a loss of centralized knowledge. There was a loss of a centralized government and an order in that context. So we see the rise of Charlemagne, but knowledge shifts as we saw or as one can see with like early medieval art.
You have art that becomes smaller, but still incredibly detailed and still requiring highly skilled artisans. It's just the resources and the setup is not there to necessarily do large scale pieces like what we saw during the Roman Empire. Now to break down Charlemagne.
and how we know what's going on here. This is likely a depiction of Charlemagne on parade. And why we think this, he's wearing a crown, he's wearing imperial robes, and he's holding the orb, which symbolizes world domination, right?
He's in control over his land and territory. Now, All of these things, these are decorative things. He's not on horseback going into battle, right? He's not wearing any armor. That's why we would assume, suspect, interpret this as him being on parade and this being a more ceremonial portrait of Charlemagne.
Okay, so that is... our equestrian portrait of Charlemagne or possibly Charlemagne the Bald, bronze, carolingian, here it is on display in a museum. And so right it's it's really meant to further connect the carolingian empire to the roman empire right they are in creating this they're inspired by roman art they are trying to copy Roman art, right? Using bronze again, trying to make those connections to create a Carolingian visual culture that relates back to Roman visual culture.