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Fragment of a section of carved pillar
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Fragment of a section of carved pillar
Greek island marble
Height: 32cm
Width: 25cm
Length: 18cm
Width: 25cm
Length: 18cm
Museum number: M30
Vermeule catalogue number: Vermeule 139
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
Enriched on four sides with vines and branches, there are (bay) leaves, berries, grapes, birds, insects, etc. on the thicker central stems.
A better preserved, longer shaft with decoration in the same manner and detail is in the Museo Chiaramonti, Vatican1. These somewhat fantastic foliage designs were usually populated with birds of all species, herons, thrushes and the like, not to mention locusts, grasshoppers, worms, and similar insect life.
Two other fragments Soane M727 and M481 have similar decoration and are thought to be from Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli (Villa Adriana).
1 W. Amelung, Die Skulpturen des Vaticanischen Museums, Berlin, 1903-08, Volume 1 - 1903; volume 2 - 1908, p. 619, no. 467c, pl. 65.
A better preserved, longer shaft with decoration in the same manner and detail is in the Museo Chiaramonti, Vatican1. These somewhat fantastic foliage designs were usually populated with birds of all species, herons, thrushes and the like, not to mention locusts, grasshoppers, worms, and similar insect life.
Two other fragments Soane M727 and M481 have similar decoration and are thought to be from Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli (Villa Adriana).
1 W. Amelung, Die Skulpturen des Vaticanischen Museums, Berlin, 1903-08, Volume 1 - 1903; volume 2 - 1908, p. 619, no. 467c, pl. 65.
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 See Cornelius Vermeule, unpublished Catalogue of the Antiquities at Sir John Soane's Museum, Introduction.
Literature
Tatham: Drawings, 8, no.36.
Ward Penkins, Journal of Roman Studies, XLII, 1952, p.30, no 55.
Ward Penkins, Journal of Roman Studies, XLII, 1952, p.30, no 55.
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