Archaeology | Capitals | Composite | Composite column capital with plain leaves | Artwork profile

White marble

H. 31,5

First half of the IV century AD


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Composite column capital with plain leaves

Composite capital with plain leaves characterized by an inverted arrangement of the crowns’ four leaves (h. of the first crown 14 cm; h. of the second crown 19,5), as the bent corner leaves supporting the volutes stem from behind the central ones, which are placed on the foreground and are linked to each other at the base by means of a short, slightly arched band of marble.

The leaves are large and bent, with broken tips, while the disc-shaped volutes are directly attached to the echinus and take on a slightly oblong form. The plain echinus is directly imposed above the projecting kalathos rim and is devoid of its astragal; the vegetal scroll that in earlier examples ran through the volutes’ channel is now missing, just like the half-palmettes of which not even their projecting volumes remain; the abacus’ rosette is slightly bulging and rounded.

Comparisons can be made between our capital and other examples retrieved in Ostia (Pensabene P., I capitelli, in Scavi di Ostia, vol. VII, Roma 1973, p. 132, nn. 523-524) that show the same peculiar inverted arrangement of the two crowns of leaves, thus allowing to chronologically set our piece within the first half of the IV century AD.