Fluted shaft of column

Fluted shaft of column, made of four fluted drums in breccia corallina marble with a fifth restored: each drum is ca. 67 cm high and is slightly tapered toward the top, as the lower drum has an intermediate circumference of 50 cm, the second of 48 cm and the remnants 44.5 e 44 cm ca. The central drum has been restored.

The anastylosis of the column was made possible thanks not only to the use of identical marble, but especially to the presence on the single parts of matching veins and inclusions. However, the central part is missing; in fact if we take into account the ratio of 1:8 between the lower diameter and the total height of the column, the resulting height of the shaft equalled 4.60 m.

The drums placed at each extremity are preserved: the top one has a flat fillet (h. 1.5 cm) and an astragal (h. 3.5 cm, projecting 2.5 cm), while the bottom one is carved with a cavetto molding and a fillet (h. 3 cm, projecting 3 cm).

The shaft has 24 flutings ca. 4.6-5 cm wide, curved both at the top and at the bottom, and separated by flat fillets 1.5 cm wide. Breccia corallina marble is characterized by an intense dark red hue and by the presence of pink or yellowish inclusions, some of them particularly large. This kind of stone was largely employed in the Imperial age, especially to carve columns and basins.