Author: W. Raganelli
Download article as .pdf: L’Arco di Portogallo sulla Via Lata. Una lettura attraverso le testimonianze antiche e moderne
This contribution examines the so-called Arch of Portugal along the ancient Via Lata, a monument that has been the subject of numerous attributions since the Renaissance. In the recent decades some studies have proposed a dating between the second and the fourth centuries. Starting from a passage of the Panegyric for the 6th consulate of Honorius written by Claudian, the work attempts to shed light on the history of the arch through the analysis of its architecture, known mainly thanks to Renaissance drawings, and the iconographic elements attributable to it, to which follows a comparison with other monuments for which it is possible to ascertain cases of re-functionalization and re-use. The acquired data offer the opportunity to re-evaluate the chronology of the monument even against the evidence contained in the literary sources of the fifteenth century.