This copper engraving of the Igel Column shown here by Edward Rooker (1712-1774) based on a drawing by William Pars (1742-1782) was published as a single sheet in 1783. The monument is depicted in the context of a bucolic-looking village settlement: several figures in contemporary costume stroll in front of a thatched farmhouse towards the tomb, which is enclosed by a small wall.
A church looms in the background and there is a crucifix by the side of the road in the right half of the picture. The monument probably owes its survival to the ‘interpretatio christiana’ that it underwent in post-antiquity: in Friedrich Schavard’s Collatio, dating from the beginning of the 15th century, there are descriptions that draw on local ideals and connect the main image of the Igel Column with the wedding of Constantius and St. Helena, the parents of Constantine the Great. The relief is surrounded by scenes depicting the festivities of the event. The figures’ transformation from cloth merchants to saints and the associated embedding in medieval functional contexts represents one of the most remarkable transformations of ancient artefacts.
Further Reading
- Clemens, Lukas: Zum Umgang mit Grabbauten der frühen und mittleren Kaiserzeit während der Spätantike und des Mittelalters nördlich der Alpen, in: Dietrich Boschung (Ed.): Grabbauten des zweiten und dritten Jahrhunderts in den gallischen und germanischen Provinzen. Akten des Internationalen Kolloquiums in Köln 22./23. Februar 2007, Wiesbaden 2009, pp. 320-324.
- Dragendorff, Hans / Krüger, Emil: Das Grabmal von Igel, Trier 1924.
- Klöckner, Anja: Die sog. Igeler Säule in Druckgraphiken des 16.-18. Jahrhunderts in: Laura Di Carlo / Johannes Lipps / Anna Pawlak / Daniel R. F. Richter (Hgg.): Andere Ästhetik meets Andere Ästhetik. Visualisierungen von Antiken nördlich der Alpen in der frühneuzeitlichen Druckgraphik.
