The elevation of ancient Cologne from a settlement to a colony under Roman law (colonia) in the middle of the first century AD was followed by the construction of a stone city wall. The fragments of a gate building with the inscription “CCAA” (Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium) from what is presumed to be the north portal have been preserved and are now in the Roman-Germanic Museum in Cologne.
The preserved archivolt was incorporated into the Title Page II of the Epideigma, creatively appropriated and further configured in an imaginary portal with tropaia on either side. Following ancient iconographic tradition, the personifications of the Rhine and its tributaries sit on a pedestal with the title inscription. The height of the substructure evokes a stage on which the actors involved in the city’s Roman founding can be seen: Julius Caesar, Agrippina Minor and her mother Agrippina Major on the right, Emperor Augustus, the governor M. Vispanius Agrippa and Germanicus on the left. The passage opens up the view of a landscape in which a river and military columns are visible in front of the ancient city. On the final portal cornice, which has already collapsed on the sides, the imperial eagle sits at the centre, enthroned upon a globe. Roman gods are gathered on the left, and on the right, angels drive away a pagan being at Christ’s behest and smash the sculpture of Mars, god of war. This presents a thought-provoking artistic conquest, whereby the Christian faith seeks to take over the pagan place on the ‘stage’ of the ancient world.
Gate archivolt of the northern city gate of Cologne
Limestone, Roman-Germanic Museum of the City of Cologne, Inv. No.: 74, 2360, https://arachne.dainst.org/entity/7139059, Photographer: Philipp Groß.Further Reading
- Noelke, Peter: Kölner Antikensammlungen und -studien vom Humanismus bis zur Aufklärung, in: Kölner Jahrbuch 49 (2016), pp. 535–547.
- Schäfer, Alfred: Stephan Broelmann (1551–1622). Agrippa und die Gründung Kölns, in: Dietrich Boschung / Erich Kleinschmidt (Ed.): Lesbarkeiten. Antikerezeption zwischen Barock und Aufklärung, Würzburg 2010, pp. 101–120.
- Schöller, Bernadette: Arbeitsteilung in der Druckgraphik um 1600. Die "Epideigma" des Stephan Broelmann, in: Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte Vol. 54, No. 3 (1991), pp. 406–411. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1482581 (last accessed: 30th November 2022).
- Schütte, Sven / Gechter, Marianne: Stephan Broelmann und die Folgen. Karten Kölns, der konstantinischen Rheinbrücke und der römischen Wasserleitung nach Köln aus 380 Jahren, in: Kölner Museums-Bulletin: Berichte, Forschungen und Aktuelles aus den Museen der Stadt Köln (1999) pp. 4–26.
- Zimmermann, Petra S.: 331 Stephan Broelman. Epideigma, in: LVR-Landes Museums Bonn (Ed.): Renaissance am Rhein, Katalog zur Ausstellung Renaissance am Rhein 16. September 2010 –6. Februar 2011, Bonn 2010, pp. 440–442.
