Charles of Anjou

The statue of Charles I, King of Naples and Sicily, must have been made at in the 1280s, possibly in connection with Charles’s renewed appointment as Roman senator in 1281. Regarding the attribution to Arnolfo, it is suggested not only by the sobriety of expression, the solidity of form and the dry, angular handling of the drapery, but also by the detailed and unusually naturalistic treatment of the features, which is closely paralleled in the de Braye monument.

The original location of the statue, which has been associated with a fragmentary trumpeting figure, is not known, nor is it clear whether the sculptures were ever finished and installed. It seems likely that it was the intention to install it in a monumental setting on the Capitoline Hill in the vicinity of the church of the Aracoeli.

The statue present Charles as an heir to the Caesars - an imperial law-giver, seated on a lion throne with a jeweled crown on his head. The statue’s fabric depended on the architectural heritage of classical Rome. The evidence for the original use of the material is still visible at the back of the figure. It can be seen that the sculpture was fashioned from a colossal fragment of a moulded architrave, the dimensions of which may have limited the depth of the figure.