Marble portrait head of the Emperor Constantine I

[Arthur Peabody]

‘NY Times’ chose it as 1 of the Met's 20 scariest artworks: https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/10/18/multimedia/18cul-spooky-met-hunt-constantine-02-tzvg/18cul-spooky-met-hunt-constantine-02-tzvg-articleLarge-v2.jpg

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2025/10/18/multimedia/18cul-spooky-met-hunt-constantine-04-tzvg/18cul-spooky-met-hunt-constantine-04-tzvg-articleLarge-v2.jpg

‘There is nothing immediately frightening about the marble head of Emperor Constantine I. His features are worn smooth with a gaze lifted toward the heavens. But years ago, a friend studying art history transformed the sculpture into a source of dread. She imbued its blank, monumental eyes with judgment as she faced looming deadlines on college applications and final exams. This specter of failure haunted her dreams, and she recounted nightmares of finding the emperor's severed head around every corner.

We laughed, thinking that her concerns were absurd. It wasn't until our first trip to the museum together that I understood. The artwork's sheer scale and unblinking detachment overwhelmed her -- she screamed in the gallery and raced into the adjoining room until Constantine's head was no longer in view.’

The Met’s 20 Scariest Artworks: Can You Find Them?

For this Halloween scavenger hunt, we scoured this encyclopedic museum for the most haunting works, bloody details and hidden meanings.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Dantius]

Meanwhile, the rhetorician Nazarius on Constantine I:
obtutus hominum benignus receptas, nec intuentem iniquus fulgor retundit, sed serenum lumen invitat.
"You receive the gazes of men kindly, nor does an unequal brightness beat back the onlooker, but a calm light invites him in."