Puteal

Cylindrical molded wellhead, used to protect and decorate the openings of wells located at the centre of cloisters and domus.

The shaft has 36 flutings (w. 3 cm), separated by sharp thin fillets and decorated at the top with semicircular carvings; it is slightly tapered towards the bottom and it rests on a high molded plinth formed by a cyma reversa followed by a thin plain fillet, while the crowning molding is carved with a plain fillet, a cyma recta and two plain bands of different height divided by a small torus. On the top, the inner circumference has been indented with a chisel, while parts of the shaft and of the base have been removed.

The comparison with several puteals, found in various Italian archaeological contexts, helps to establish the chronology of our artefact. An example from Museo Chiaramonti in the Vatican Museums shows the same stylistic features and is chronologically set in the late Republican period, just like the one in the Galleria dei Candelabri (I cent. BC), but even closer comparisons can be found with the numerous examples found in Pompeii in the courtyards of domus dated around 50 BC, confirming a chronology for our piece between the I century BC and the I century AD.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCE: BIBLIOGRAFIA di RIFERIMENTO: Amelung W., Die Sculturen des Vaticanischen Museums, 1 vol., Berlin 1903, p.428 n.178a; Pernice, Die Hellenistische Kunst, Bd.5: Hellenistische Tische, Zisternenmündungen, Beckenuntersätze, Altäre und Truhen, Leipzig 1932; Lippold G., Die Skulpturen des Vaticanischen Museums, III, 2, Berlin 1956, n.36 p.300, taf.136; ; Stadler M., Museo Chiaramonti, Berlin-New York 1995, p.121.