米尔维安桥战役

Raphael died in the spring of 1520, and he left this wall unfinished. Pope Leo X had commissioned a whole room glorifying the first Christian emperor, and the biggest scene, this cavalry battle, was still just a design when the master was gone. So his chief assistant, Giulio Romano, and the rest of the workshop carried it to completion over the next few years. The subject is the fight on October 28th, 312, where Constantine beat his rival Maxentius at a bridge on the edge of Rome, the victory that legend tied to a vision of the cross. Look at how the whole thing is framed. It is painted to look like a huge tapestry hanging on the wall, with a woven-looking border, and worked into that border is the coat of arms of the Medici, the family Pope Leo came from. Down near the water on the right you can find the drowning Maxentius, swept off his horse into the river where he died.