Small pilaster with a plain-leaves Corinthian capital

Fragmentary monolithic pilaster, of which survives the upper part of the shaft crowned by a plain-leaves Corinthian capital, characterized by a drastic simplification of the ornament. The capital has a row of large plain leaves (h. 15 cm) that are linked at the base, slightly curved at the top and placed at the corners; from behind these leaves appear the central elongated water leaves, which, here completely flattened, adhere to the surface of the kalathos and touch the abacus with their tip.

No element is left to divide the kalathos and there remains only a small convex rim (h. 1.5 cm), immediately followed by the plain abacus (h. 6 cm), devoid of moldings. The fluted shaft of the pilaster (max. preserved h. 21 cm), with top astragal and fillet (total h. 1.5 cm), has flutings separated by flat fillets, of which two are on the front and three, with traces of the fourth, are on the right and left sides.

This kind of capital is largely attested in Rome between the middle of the IV and the first four decades of the V century AD, according to Herrmann (The Schematic Composite Capital: A Study of Architectural Decoration at Rome in the Later Empire, Ann Arbor 1974), and within the IV century in Ostia according to Pensabene (I capitelli, Scavi di Ostia, vol. VII, Roma 1973).