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Fragment of a Roman Ionic corner (?) pilaster capital
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Fragment of a Roman Ionic corner (?) pilaster capital
Mid 2nd century to late 2nd century AD
Luna marble
Height: 37cm
Width: 46cm
Thickness: 9cm
Width: 46cm
Thickness: 9cm
Museum number: M1253
Vermeule catalogue number: Vermeule 68
On display: Drawing Office - also known as the Students Room (pre-booked tours only)
All spaces are in No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields unless identified as in No. 12, Soane's first house.
For tours https://www.soane.org/your-visit
Curatorial note
The enrichment on this capital from top to bottom comprises: fillet top; a narrow strip of acanthus leaf viewed sideways, which leads into the volute scroll at the right; flattened egg and dart; bead and reel and a broad band of 'whistle' or strap pattern fluting at the bottom.
The left edge of the carved surface, a band .02m. wide, was never carved. The semi-finished state indicates that this capital belonged to a corner pilaster, probably running into a wall abutting at right angles. The work is mid to late Second century, close to (but of too careful and undramatic detail to belong to) the Severan period with its heightening of Flavian theatrics.
On the decoration of the channel and the volute see: J. J. Hermann, Jr., The Ionic Captial in Late Antique Rome, Rome, 1988, pp. 12ff.
Exhibited at the Frick collection with Vermeule 60 (M1252) during the 1990s in a travelling exhibition from the Soane.
The left edge of the carved surface, a band .02m. wide, was never carved. The semi-finished state indicates that this capital belonged to a corner pilaster, probably running into a wall abutting at right angles. The work is mid to late Second century, close to (but of too careful and undramatic detail to belong to) the Severan period with its heightening of Flavian theatrics.
On the decoration of the channel and the volute see: J. J. Hermann, Jr., The Ionic Captial in Late Antique Rome, Rome, 1988, pp. 12ff.
Exhibited at the Frick collection with Vermeule 60 (M1252) during the 1990s in a travelling exhibition from the Soane.
Provenance
Rome; collected in Rome by Charles Heathcote Tatham for the architect Henry Holland during the 1790s. See Cornelius Vermeule, unpublished catalogue of the Antiquities at Sir John Soane's Museum, Introduction, transcription of Tatham letters, List 3, no. 50. (Soane Archive)
Literature
Tatham: Etchings, Frontispiece; Drawings, 11.
Soane collections online is being continually updated. If you wish to find out more or if you have any further information about this object please contact us: worksofart@soane.org.uk