Tuscanic column capital

Tuscanic column capital formed by a thick, square abacus (h. 9 cm) carved with a plain band and a vegetal ornament consisting of two acanthus half-leaves placed at either side of a central, plain and slightly pointed water leaf; the half-leaves have lobes with indented margins and midribs in relief. On side only, the inferior contour of the half-leaf is marked by a lowered sect of stone, rather thick, which stretches onto the echinus, thus indenting its profile. The narrow echinus has a quarter of round profile and a thin fillet divides it from the fairly high neck, the latter cut with a large cavetto moulding and a thick bottom rim underlined by an incised line. The piece features an unusual form of ornament, which may well be the result of some subsequent, though still antique, reworkings. Such hypothesis can be supported by the comparison with an exemplar from Ancona: here the profile was originally that of a Doric capital with expanded echinus, but it was subsequently recarved into a Tuscanic one with quarter of round echinus, cavetto neck and inferior thick bottom rim underlined by an astragal, thus with a series of mouldings all the same similar to those visible on our piece. The kind of acanthus and its stylistic rendering can be compared with the acanthus used as leafy volutes on the Corinthianizing capitals of the second half of the I century AD, and therefore it will be possible to ascribe our capital to the same chronological setting.