Labrum on base

Collection M. boasts this monumental labrum of massive size on base, carved in a red marble called “Cottanello antico”. Labra were commonly employed as basins for cold water in the calidarium, the hottest room in the Roman baths, as marble kept the water at a cooler temperature. They could also be placed at the centre of an atrium furnished with impluvium. 

Cottanello marble is marked by a high iron content and by veins of calcite, hence the distinctive white and red colouration; it was extracted only from a quarry near the town of Cottanello, not far from the city of Rieti in Latium. That the block of marble employed for our basin is antique it is proved by its own mineralogical characteristics: it shows larger and thinner veins of white calcite, which form an intricate pattern, and a marn of vivid red colour. A comparison can be made with eight small columns (h. approx. 2,5 m) of a lateral chapel in the Cathedral of Spoleto, identified by Henry Pullen as Roman (II-III cent. ad) and carved in Cottanello antico as our labrum; on such identification agrees Monica Price from Oxford University, Museum of Natural History, who has also recognized the typical traces of hematite. In fact, when the quarry was reopened around 1644 to provide Gianlorenzo Bernini with the marble for the columns of the nave of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, the stone appeared to be of a different quality, with larger white veins and a yellowish marn. 

The basin is formed by two parts of the same marble, held together by a metal dowel which, after specific analysis, can be dated to the XVII century. The support, which has been repolished and reworked to make it fit the large basin, consists of a base indented with two concentric mouldings, cyma reversa ionica and torus, and of a tapered shaft with flutings interrupted by a second torus, followed by a large plain band ending with an egg and tongue ornament. The metal dowel, fixed on the summit of the support, fits a hole in the centre of the basin. The bottom of the basin has a larger circumference than the summit of the support, thus it seems that the latter has been reduced in size to adapt it to the labrum. 

The exterior of the basin is characterized by deeply-cut an swollen ribs which cover the surface with a radial arrangement, thus forming the outer decoration of the labrum’s body. A large, plain and not reworked fillet connects the ribs to the wide rim cut with egg and tongue. The interior of the basin features only a polished band, while the rest of the surface, that was to be covered in water, is simply roughed out. At the centre a large discus (diam. 25 cm) with modern hole. 

The labrum is intact in its structure, it shows some chippings along the egg and tongue moulding of the rim, mended with small repairs, and a fracture along a vein of white calcite which has been restored with two metal clamps. These clamps were covered in lead and, after specific analysis, its alloy proved to be dated to the end of the XIX century. Thus the artefact underwent two distinct sets of repair and fixing in different times, a thing which, according to Brian Gilmour from the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art - Oxford, would stand as a further proof of the object’s antiquity. 

Its previous use as a water basin has left patent signs of calcification on the interior and decay along the rim for approximately 15 cm; a small drain channel was also cut, presumably at a later date. Lastly, along the inner margin and at regular intervals, some lead dowels have been driven, probably the sole remainder of an upper fixing. 

The labrum has been analyzed by several experts, seen by Patrizio Pensabene and compared with other antique exemplars by Annarena Ambrogi, author of Labra di età romana in marmi bianchi e colorati. The piece is therefore to be considered antique, yet with reworking and adjustments to fit the base, and chronologically placed within the II-III century ad, a period when, after the example set by the emperor Augustus (31 bc-14 ad), coloured marbles begun to be widely employed in both public and private buildings. Coloured stones were particularly favoured under the emperors Trajan, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, in the period 98-161 ad, when they were often used for carving sculptures, architectural decoration and veneering elements.