Relief

In the middle of the oval relief is the figure sitting on a rearing white horse his dress — red coat with gilt embroidery and a cloak —, and his wig are streaming in the wind. He wears a breast-plate above his coat. He points towards the distant towers of the city of Constantinople with his raised field marshal's baton, where his soldiers pursue the Turkish troops. Above him in the sky the sun appears from among thick clouds. A half-wing (?) is to be seen from behind a cloud. According to the old inventory description the sun was made of a gilt copper plate, behind the equestrian figure the imperial eagle was flying and an angel was holding an inscription of seven lines with gilt letters. The text of the inscription is to be read now on a paper on the back of the relief: Pugna o Giuseppe invitto / Che t'assiste il valore e fortuna/ E come ha il Ciel prescritto /Pugnando espugnerai la mezza Luna / Cosi per te vedremo / / In Bisanzio citta di Costantino / Redivivo l'lmpero e Re latino. = "Fight Joseph, oh invincible may strength and fortune favour you, and as it was ordered by Heaven, extinguish by your wars the Half moon, so that we may once again see the power of Empire and the Latin King hold sway in the Byzantine seat of Constantine." The face of the figure bears no sign of a portrait or individuality, so the attribution to Joseph I was based on the glorifying poem only. The composition, well-known and widespread, has no known graphic model. Jeno Darko refers falsely to the relief as a work from the end of the 18th century, and according to this he identifies the person with the Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph II.