Plain Ionic cornice

Plain Ionic cornice carved in white Luna marble, missing the right end and large portions of the lower laying surface; extensively chipped along the upper margin of the sima. From top to bottom, the cornice is formed by a sima with cyma recta profile, divided, by means of a thin fillet, from the corona that, being devoid of the peduncle, takes up the shape of a continuous dentil; then follow a plain ovolo with quarter of circle profile and a thin cyma reversa framed on top by a fillet. The sequence is here decidedly simplified, as it is not only devoid of indented ornaments, but it is most of all marked by the suppression of the canonical dentil under the ovolo and by the transformation of the profile of the corona into that proper of the dentil. Mouldings are however worked with a certain amount of care, which grants them harmonious proportions, supple curves and neatly separated planes. The absence of carved ornaments prevents us from assigning this piece to a specific chronological phase, yet the accurate rendering, harmonic proportions and plastic profiles suggest a dating to the I century AD, preferably within the first half of it.