Archaeology | Capitals | Corinthianizing | Corinthianizing column capital | Artwork profile

White marble

h. 23 cm; w. max. 31 cm; lower diam. 23 cm

Middle of the I century AD


Report

Corinthianizing column capital

Corinthianizing column capital with two thirds of the kalathos covered by a single crown of acanthicizing leaves with seven lobes; each lobe is separated from the other by means of small, drop-shaped voids and it is divided into three fleshy, trifolium-like points which are worked with tiny drill-holes. The page of the leaf shows a narrow midrib in relief and it is densely covered by a series of ribs and creases which, with a slightly curvilinear arrangement, go towards the base of the composition from the shallow concavity placed at the centre of each lobe. At either side of the central folia springs a very thin, vertical and vaguely conical shaft on which rests a calyx made of a narrow half-leaf, devoid of lobes; its inner ends curl inwards forming small symmetrical spirals, held together by a very thin baltheus. From the calyxes spring the outer volutes, formed by a narrow strip with a gently angled profile. The abacus, carved with plain ovolo and cavetto mouldings, is embellished by a flower with four fleshy petals and thin central pistil. From a structural point of view, amongst the variety of Corinthianizing capitals our exemplar can be placed in the line of the capitals employed in Nero’s villa at Subiaco, which are equally characterized by very thin and completely vertical cauliculi, placed at either side of the central folia of a single crown of leaves. The treatment of the leaves derives instead from Augustan models, see for example a capital in the Antiquarium on the Palatine Hill, yet the presence of a mild dark and light play, obtained by means of tiny drill-holes, draws again our capital nearer to the pieces produced around the middle of the I century AD, making it closely comparable to an exemplar reused in the Church of S. Lorenzo Maggiore in Neaples and to one now in the Museo Nazionale Romano.