Memorie sommerse. I bronzi del Ponte di Valentiniano - Submerged memories. The bronzes of Valentinian’s Bridge

The exhibition curated by Federica Rinaldi and Agnese Pergola for the Museo Nazionale Romano - Palazzo Massimo alla Terme presents to the public a group of extraordinary bronzes that were part of the decoration of the ancient Pons Valentiniani.

The bridge was built by the praefectus urbi Lucius Aurelius Avianius Symmachus in the 4th century AD on behalf of Valentinian I and Valens on top of a previous structure (the Pons Aurelius, the Pons Antoninus, or the Pons Agrippae) to connect the Circus Flaminius with Trastevere. It was destroyed by a flood of the Tiber in 729 AD and replaced centuries later by the current Sixtus Bridge. The bronzes presented to the public re-emerged at the end of the 19th century during work on the banks of the Tiber and were kept in the museum’s storerooms for a long time. Today, they are once again on display thanks to extensive restoration and study, which has allowed for a new, complete contextualisation.

Three fragmentary works are on display: a male head wearing a diadem (perhaps that of Emperor Valentinian I), a gilded bronze statue depicting a figure wearing a toga, and the wing of a Victory. A video narrated by Silvia Orlandi, professor of Latin epigraphy at Sapienza University of Rome, illustrates the large marble dedicatory inscription of Valentinian and his brother Valens, and the monumental travertine inscription that adorned the exterior of the bridge, designed specifically to be read by sailors on the Tiber. The inscription is preserved in Michelangelo’s Cloister at the Baths of Diocletian.