Plain column shaft

Plain column shaft broken at the top and thus missing the upper end; the bottom end is cut with a fillet (h. 2 cm; d. 1 cm) and is badly chipped. It seems reasonable to identify the stone here used with the “Breccia di Seravezza” marble, carved also in antiquity in the Apuan Alps and characterized, just like our example, by white and pink crystal pebbles embedded in a purplish background. An ancient column, comparable to ours, is stored in the Museo Nazionale Romano (rep. n. 981). We must note that there are strong analogies between the ancient breccia and the modern lithotype, which gained particular favour after 1563 thanks to the patronage of Cosimo I de’ Medici and of his successors.