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Fragment of a large Roman altar or the base of a statue group(?)
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Fragment of a large Roman altar or the base of a statue group(?)
27 BC-14 AD
Augustan
Augustan
Pentelic marble
Height: 53cm
Width: 67cm
Thickness: 11cm
Width: 67cm
Thickness: 11cm
Museum number: S111
Vermeule catalogue number: Vermeule 221
On display: Study
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
Two filleted ox heads supporting a heavy vine and grape, leaves and stems etc. with a garland between. Above is a stylised rosette-patera.
This was, with S105, part of a semi-circular (statue) base wtih a delicately carved frieze fo probably four bulls heads linked by garlands of Bacchic character suspended from their horns. S105 is from the side of the same base (see provenance) and its decoration proves that the base was meant to be viewed either from all sides or at least partially from the rear.
Vermeule commented that 'even in its mutilated state the base may be considered one of teh mosst nobly carved examples of its kind surviving from antiquity'. See entry for S105 for comparisons with other examples in the Capitoline Museums, Rome and an example recorded in drawings in the British Museum; also see S105 for a full discussion of the decoration.
This was, with S105, part of a semi-circular (statue) base wtih a delicately carved frieze fo probably four bulls heads linked by garlands of Bacchic character suspended from their horns. S105 is from the side of the same base (see provenance) and its decoration proves that the base was meant to be viewed either from all sides or at least partially from the rear.
Vermeule commented that 'even in its mutilated state the base may be considered one of teh mosst nobly carved examples of its kind surviving from antiquity'. See entry for S105 for comparisons with other examples in the Capitoline Museums, Rome and an example recorded in drawings in the British Museum; also see S105 for a full discussion of the decoration.
Provenance
Collected by Charles Heathcote Tatham for Henry Holland in Rome (see References). Tatham notes on his drawing "In the possession of Signor Angelo Grimaschi, Sculptor at Rome and for which he demanded 20 Scudi" and then against the drawing of item S105 on the same sheet, 'fragment of one of the sides'. See Cornelius Vermeule, unpublished catalogue of Antiquities at Sir John Soane's Museum, Introduction, Transcription of Tatham Letters, p. 40. (SM Archive)
Literature
Tatham: Etchings, pl. 13; Drawings, 9.
Description of Sir John Soane's Museum., 1930, fig. 15
Description of Sir John Soane's Museum., 1930, fig. 15
Associated items
S105, other part
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