Capital
Roman, First Century AD
Marble, Height: 7 3/4 inches

This capital, rectangular in cross section comes from a squared column, now lost, and of unusual form.  Carved in low relief with acanthus leaves with five petaled flowers emerging from behind them.  With a wonderful archeological surface with root marks and encrustation, the original surfaces under it are very well preserved. The fine quality of the low relief mark this capital as from the Augustan period, or at least the First Century AD. 

The vegetal motif decorating architectural elements such as capitals in ancient Greek and Roman art, has a sacred symbolism, animating the building and elements, and representing the generative power of nature and the gods. The carving in this capital is not rote, as it would be in later Neo-Classical architectural elements, the flowers and leaves are not perfectly symmetrical, while balanced in arrangement, each element is individually observed and carved.  The flowers for example, one is further behind a leaf than the other, each has a slightly different position as if shifted slightly in a breeze.  Thus while a "decorative", this is an original work of sculptural art from one of the high points of Roman sculpture.