Four-faced Ionic column capital

Four-faced Ionic column capital characterized by a peculiar kind of ornamentation. The high abacus is cut with a series of flutings (h. 4 cm) which have a small semicircular membrane at the bottom and which are separated by fairly deep drilled grooves. The abacus rests on the volutes’ channel, with upper rectilinear margin, which coils into spirals made of a flat strip and today almost completely lost. The echinus (h. 7 cm) has a cylindrical shape and it is carved with a garland of overlapped oak leaves; these are arranged in a symmetrical pattern converging towards the centre, are embellished by rounded acorns and have softly creased margins, shadowed by tiny drill-holes. A thin fillet marks the division from the neck, the latter being decorated with a Lesbian kymation formed by plain semicircular leaves and pointed tongues with cuspidated section (h. 4,5 cm). The substitution of the canonical Ionic kymation with another decorative motif on the echinus is a very rare kind of ornamentation: it derives from the formal experiments made in Augustan age, when unusual combinations and atypical decorative forms appear on isolated exemplars. To such scenario belongs a Composite capital, now in Palazzo Farnese, with double echinus carved with a garland of overlapped oak leaves and a series of short flutings, as well as a capital in the Vatican Museums of the rather rare “horizontal bands” type, in which both the carved neck and the fluted fascia appear. A thick wreath of leaves is featured as an ornament for the kalathos’ rim also on a series of Corinthianizing capitals of Roman provenance and dated again to the Augustan period (Capitoline Museums, Santa Maria in Domnica). Yet, the closest parallels can be found in a Composite exemplar of Flavian age, from the Imperial Palace on the Palatine Hill, in which the echinus features a bulging profile and a decoration all the same similar to ours, even if worked with a more intense chiaroscuro effect. The quite simplified rendering of the Lesbian kymation on the neck, with half-leaves feebly separated and large tongues, can be compared with several Augustan artefacts, as for example the cornice of the Temple of Concord, of the Basilica Aemilia, of the Arch of Augustus in the Roman Forum, etc. Therefore, considering the comparisons just discussed, the manner of carving and the limited use of the drill, it appears that our capital can be dated between the late Augusta age and the middle of the I century AD.