Fragment of column shaft

Fragment of the lower part of a plain column shaft carved in large-grained red granite. The flare consists of a fillet (h. 4 cm; d. 1 cm). The quality of marble here used has a bright red background and large white quartz crystals mixed with black and grey inclusions. Red granite was one of the most employed and widespread kind of marble since the first Egyptian Dynasty and was used in Rome in the Imperial age for weight-bearing architectural elements of monumental scale, as well as for decorative part such as panels, socles, basins.