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Cornice block

Fragmentary cornice block with a series of decorated horizontal bands: this is a typical characteristic of the Flavian age, when each single molding is carved with densely intricate ornaments and the plain bands, in other times placed at intervals with the decorated ones, now disappeared.

The sima is carved with an anthemion formed, as it seems from the extant parts, by reversed acanthus calyxes alternated with palmettes that, in the lower part, are linked to each other by means of thick scrolls of acanthus.

Follow, from top to bottom, a fillet (h. 1.5 cm) and a “Blattkyma” (h. 4 cm), a molding cut with a row of small indented acanthus leaves, that crisply emerge from the background with their curled tips; then an astragal (h. 3 cm) with a rang of elongated beads and rhomboid reels, a distinctive ornament of Severan buildings and of the III century AD.

The corona shows a “Blattspitzen-Stab” (h. 9 cm), that is a pattern composed of a thin continuous band with undulating arrangement, which creates curvilinear shapes alternatively filled with reversed calyxes of acanthus and highly simplified five petals flowers, held by stems with four small leaves. It is an unusual decorative motif, that cannot be found amongst the ornaments of comparable monuments. The band’s undulating pattern derives from the simplification of the continuous Lesbian kyma occurred around the end of the II century AD, but it is in the III century that such design is enriched with new decorative elements, as it happens on our piece.

The soffit of the corona is carved with flutings (h. 14 cm), divided by deeply carved voids filled with separating darts, which point outwards; the flutings have the inner end ornamented by three overlapped semicircles: the triple semicircle appears to be common in Flavian times, as it enhances the light and shade effects of the decorative motif.

Comparisons can be made with the architectural decoration preserved in the Museo Nazionale Romano, and in particular with the architectural fragments belonging to the Temple of the Sun built by Aurelian (dedicated on the 25th of December 274 AD); considering the various types of ornaments and the good plastic handling of our artefact it is possible to set it chronologically between the end of the II and the beginning of the III century AD.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCE: Blanckenhagen P.H. von, Flavische Architektur und ihre Decoration am Nervaforum, Berlin 1940; Leon Ch., Die Bauornamentik des Trajansforum, Wien-Koln 1971; Mazzei M., s.v. Elemento di cassettonato, in Museo Nazionale Romano I, 3, Roma 1982, p.219-211, n.VIII, 24; Pettinau B., s.v. Frammento di base, in Museo Nazionale Romano I, 7,2, Roma 1984, p.290, n.IX, 50; Pettinau B., s.v. Frammenti architettonici pertinenti al Tempio del Sole di Aureliano, in Museo Nazionale Romano I, 8, 1 Roma 1985, p.17-30, n.I, 5, a-o.