Important marble capital carved all sides with acanthus leaf decoration on three registers, sticks accosted at the corners, small sticks accosted in the centre, flattened torus astragalus and abacus decorated with a frieze of leaves.
Constantinople or Ravenna, 6th century Height: 40.5 cm - Width: 43 cm - Depth: 43 cm
(small spalling, upper part dug at a later time)
It is known that from the middle of the 5th century to the 6th century, the marbles of Constantinopolitan workshops were very widely exported. Thus bases, column barrels, capitals, plaques and ambons were taken to sea and shipped around the Mediterranean. At the same time, workshops were created in the major provincial cities, mainly in Ravenna in northern Italy. This imposing capital can be compared with some of the ones visible at Torcello Cathedral near Venice (figs. a and b).
Works consulted: A. Colasanti, Byzantine Art in Italy, Milan, 1926; Paris Exhibition 1992-1993, Byzantium - Byzantine Art in French Public Collections, Musée du Louvre, cat. 30-41.
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