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Fragment of a Roman composite pilaster capital carved with acanthus leaves and a pair of dolphins
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Fragment of a Roman composite pilaster capital carved with acanthus leaves and a pair of dolphins
Late Flavian (69-96 AD) to early 2nd century AD
Luna marble
Height: 35cm
Width: 32cm
Thickness: 4cm
Width: 32cm
Thickness: 4cm
Museum number: M13
Vermeule catalogue number: Vermeule 58
On display: Museum Corridor - outside the Picture Room
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
A thin, flat pilaster capital carved with elaborate enrichment: acanthus leaves with a palmette between them, at the base; two leaves running up to form corner volutes (now missing); and a central foliate stem, about which two large dolphins are entwined1, terminating in a flower in the abacus.
Late Flavian to early Second Century palace or villa type carving.
If we can assume a local provenance for the slightly earlier but quite analogous pilaster capital in the Aquileia Museum, then we have evidence of high quality workmanship in ornate pilaster carving not only in Rome but in Northern Italy under the earlier Empire2 .
Soane's collection also contains a cast taken from this fragment (see SM M815).
1 On capitals decorated with dolphins, see von Mercklin, figs. 967;1028, they all differ from this one.
2 Brusin, Aquileia, p.122, fig.76.
Late Flavian to early Second Century palace or villa type carving.
If we can assume a local provenance for the slightly earlier but quite analogous pilaster capital in the Aquileia Museum, then we have evidence of high quality workmanship in ornate pilaster carving not only in Rome but in Northern Italy under the earlier Empire2 .
Soane's collection also contains a cast taken from this fragment (see SM M815).
1 On capitals decorated with dolphins, see von Mercklin, figs. 967;1028, they all differ from this one.
2 Brusin, Aquileia, p.122, fig.76.
Provenance
Rome; collected by Charles Heathcote Tatham for the architect Henry Holland in the 1790s. See Vermeule, 'Catalogue of Antiquities in Sir John Soane's Museum', unpublished, Introduction, Tatham Letters transcript, List 1, no.16. (Soane Archive).
Literature
Tatham: Etchings, 9; Drawings, 12.
Associated items
M815, cast
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