Constantine XII and Mahomed II at the Milvan Bridge. Observations on the date of the Battle between Constantine and Maxentius
by Piero della Francesca Monica Centanni, Alessandra Pedersoli
This essay offers an exact date for the frescoes in Arezzo painted by Piero
della Francesca portraying the Legend of the True Cross, via the identification
of the Roman emperor, not as John Paleologus VIII (as suggested by Warburg on
the basis of the Byzantine sovereigns profile on a medal by Pisanello),
but with Constantine XI, brother of John and the last emperor of Constantinople.
Disguised as the legendary battle at the Milvian Bridge, the fresco appears
to be an allusion to the clash between Constantine Paleologus (who bears the
same name as the first Christian emperor) and Mahomed II (in the painting Maxentius
troops carry Turkish emblems). The fresco can therefore be dated 1453, during
those months in which it was almost possible to hope that the new Constantine
in hoc signo would win the battle against the new Maxentius,
but, instead, witnessed the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire.