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Fragment of the side-leg of a low Roman table or bench
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Fragment of the side-leg of a low Roman table or bench
Proconnesian marble
Height: 22cm
Width: 49cm
Thickness: 12cm
Width: 49cm
Thickness: 12cm
Museum number: M1121
Vermeule catalogue number: Vermeule 236
On display: Museum South Passage
All spaces are in No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields unless identified as in No. 12, Soane's first house.
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Curatorial note
This leg is in the form of a griffin tearing at the carcass (?) of an animal stretched out behind and at the left, in front of him.
The fragmentary nature of the relief makes positive identification impossible, but the careful, polished, surface finishing and the activity of the griffin indicate work of a decorative-furniture rather than funerary nature. Aside from the fact that heraldic, low relief griffins (such as Soane fragments M560/Vermeule 312 and M61/Vermeule 313) were usually preferred for use on sarcophagus ends, the dimensions of this piece are such as to suit a carved side-leg from a low table or bench rather than even the end of a child's sarcophagus.
The fragmentary nature of the relief makes positive identification impossible, but the careful, polished, surface finishing and the activity of the griffin indicate work of a decorative-furniture rather than funerary nature. Aside from the fact that heraldic, low relief griffins (such as Soane fragments M560/Vermeule 312 and M61/Vermeule 313) were usually preferred for use on sarcophagus ends, the dimensions of this piece are such as to suit a carved side-leg from a low table or bench rather than even the end of a child's sarcophagus.
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 See Cornelius Vermeule, unpublished catalogue of the Antiquities at Sir John Soane's Museum, Introduction, transcription of Tatham letters, List 2, no. 46.
Literature
Tatham: Etchings, 2; Drawings, 2.
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