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Fragment of the base of a small Roman column
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Fragment of the base of a small Roman column
Julio-Claudian (14-70 AD) or Early Imperial
Greek marble
Height: 11cm
Width: 35cm
Thickness: 13cm
Width: 35cm
Thickness: 13cm
Museum number: M581
Vermeule catalogue number: Vermeule 73
Not on display
Curatorial note
This fragment is the lower part of the base of a small capital (? or column). The enrichment, top to bottom, consists of a torus enriched with bay leaves, fillet, cavette enriched with reversed waterleaf, fillet, and a torus carved in guilloche pattern at the base bottom.
The combination of mouldings, etc., especially the waterleaf-enriched cavetto, Vermeule thought indicated work of the Julio-Claudian period, but of second-rate quality. However, current scholarship would place this simple attic base in the early imperial period which, although close to Vermeule's dating is not identical (Charlotte Schreiter, 'Römische Schmuckbasen', Kölner Jahrbuch 28, 1995, pp.161-347 - p. 210, fig. 85, no. 85.).
The combination of mouldings, etc., especially the waterleaf-enriched cavetto, Vermeule thought indicated work of the Julio-Claudian period, but of second-rate quality. However, current scholarship would place this simple attic base in the early imperial period which, although close to Vermeule's dating is not identical (Charlotte Schreiter, 'Römische Schmuckbasen', Kölner Jahrbuch 28, 1995, pp.161-347 - p. 210, fig. 85, no. 85.).
Provenance
Rome; collected in Rome in the 1790s by Charles Heathcote Tatham for the architect Henry Holland: see C. Vermeule, Catalogue of Antiquities in Sir John Soane's Museum, unpublished typescript (Soane Archive), Introduction, Tatham, Letters, List 2, no.82.
Literature
Tatham: Etchings, 5; Drawings, 1.
Exhibition history
The Adam Brothers in Rome: Drawings from the Grand Tour, Sir John Soane's Museum, London, 25 September 2008 - 14 February 2009
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