Corinthian column capital with plain leaves

Corinthian column capital with plain leaves, dressed with two crowns of eight leaves (h. of the first crown 17 cm; h. of the second crown 29,5 cm) that have a slightly bulging midrib and are rather flattened over the kalathos surface, to which they wholly cling except for their curved tips, now broken away. Between the leaves of the second crown spring the vertical cauliculi, well outlined and separated from the leaves, with a flat plain rim. From the overhanging plain calyxes emerge the fractured helices which, shortened and flattened, are compressed under the abacus and end in a projecting spiral-shaped lobe; the volutes are broken. The small calyx and the related stem supporting the abacus’ rosette have not been carved. The mouldings of the abacus as well as its corners are totally missing; there remain traces of the large, projecting circular lobe that simulated the abacus’ rosette. The rear is roughed out.

The flattened leaves and cauliculi’s rim, the absence of the calyx and stem for the abacus’ rosette and yet the presence of the latter are all elements that find comparisons with some examples from Ostia, as well as with a capital housed in the Museo Nazionale Romano dated between the end of the II and the first half of the III century AD (Pensabene P., I capitelli, in Scavi di Ostia, vol. VII, Roma 1973, pp. 113-114, nn. 417, 422-423; Lupi L., s.v. Capitello corinzio a foglie lisce, in Museo Nazionale Romano, I, 7, 1, Roma 1984, p. 241).