Archaeology | Capitals | Corinthian | Corinthian column capital | Artwork profile

White marble

H. 48 cm; lower diam. 38 cm; abacus’ side max. 50 cm

End of the I – middle of the II century AD


Report

Corinthian column capital

Corinthian column capital with kalathos (h. with rim 41 cm) wrapped by two crowns of eight, well-parted acanthus leaves. The badly eroded and chipped surface allows only partial examination of the elements’ stylistic handling. The acanthus leaf is characterized by a large midrib, sided by slightly tapering grooves, with a thin incision running along the axis of the leaf. The foliage, clinging onto the kalathos, shows small, vertical and somewhat elongated drill-holes which, coarsely and with very little naturalistic resemblance, should correspond to the voids separating the lobes. The well preserved points are quite carefully handled: they are well arranged, long and lanceolate, separated from one another. The utmost point of the lower lobe overlaps the first point of the next lobe, thus creating elongated drop-shaped voids, followed by another void in the shape of an open triangle, as customary for capitals of the second half of the I century AD. The tips of the leaves, all broken away, must have had a gentle curve. The second row of acanthus leaves springs almost at the same level where the first crown ends (h: first crown 14,5 cm; second crown 27 cm). The slightly bent cauliculi have a ridged shaft ending in a rim with quite carefully carved everted sepals. Helices and volutes, now broken, consist in a flat strip curling in a small tight coil compressed under the abacus and projecting forward. From behind the midleaf springs a small, plain oval leaf that serves as a stem for the abacus’ rosette. On the abacus, the mouldings are completely broken off on all sides, while there remains only one rosette with an indistinct bulging and rounded shape (h. 8 cm; depth 9 cm). The capital can be dated between the end of the I and the middle of the II century AD, considering the compressed volutes and helices and a certain simplification of forms which are nevertheless here still combined with canonical elements, such as the calyx and stem of the abacus’ rosette, with the treatment of certain details, such as the lanceolate points and the crown of everted sepals, with the traditional proportions of the two crowns of leaves and with a limited use of the drill.