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Some Early Examples of the Composite Capital

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

D. E. Strong
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Extract

The Composite capital was described by D. S. Robertson in his Handbook of Greek and Roman Architecture (2nd ed., 1945) as ‘essentially a mixture of four-sided Ionic and Corinthian, in varying proportions. The invention is probably Augustan, but the earliest strictly datable examples are perhaps to be found at Rome in the Colosseum, dedicated in A.D. 80, and in the slightly later Arch of Titus: both these have a double row of acanthus leaves which gives them a more Corinthian look’.

Since the Handbook was written, very little has been added to the history of the Composite capital. Robertson's explanation of the origin of the type, which seems to have been pointed out first by Patroni, is still the accepted one.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 1-2 , November 1960 , pp. 119 - 128
Copyright
Copyright © D. E. Strong 1960. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 In Miscellanea di Studi Critici in onore di E. Stampini, Turin and Genoa, 1921, 151.

2 Patroni's view is clearly stated and defended by Ziino, V. in Palladio V, 1941, 97–111Google Scholar.

3 The Arch is not precisely dated, but is generally believed to belong to the early years of Domitian's reign; a date in the reign of Nerva or Trajan has been argued: Class. Journ. XI, 1915, 131 ff.Google Scholar, and Magi, F., I Rilievi Flavi del Palazzo della Cancelleria, Vatican, 1945, 160Google Scholar. The similarity between the capitals and those of the Arch of Trajan at Benevento can hardly be used as evidence for a late date.

4 For the date of this building, Kāhler, H., Jahrb.DAI 50, 1935, 195–7Google Scholar.

5 Vjesnik 51, 1930–1934, 16Google Scholar, Taf. 3, 2, and Strena Buliciana, Zagreb, 1924, 91, fig. 5.

6 A. Maiuri, Not. Scavi 1939, 179 ff. The capitals of a little aedicula in the house of D. Octavius Quartio (fig. II) are similar to the later version: Spinazzola, V., Pompei alla luce degli scavi nuovi di Via dell' Abbondanza, Rome, 1953, I, 403Google Scholar, fig. 459.

7 Thus, some painted capitals in the Villa at Boscoreale (Lehmann, P. W., Roman Wall Paintings from Boscoreale in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cambridge, Mass., 1953Google Scholar, pl. XXXI) seem to contain the germ of the Composite capital without being in any sense proto-Composite. Diagonal Ionic capitals with a low ring of foliage are found at Tarentum in the third century B.C. (Klumbach, H., Tarentiner Grabkunst, Reutlingen 1937Google Scholar, Taf. 27, nos. 207–8).

8 Delbrueck, R., Hellenistische Bauten in Latium II, Strassburg, 1912, 152–3, 155Google Scholar.

9 An Augustan diagonal capital re-used in the Church of S. Clemente in Rome has concave volutes and orthodox classical palmettes. F. Gusman, L'Art Decoratif de Rome 1, pl. II, 1, illustrates a second-century example with a low collar of leaves. The capitals of the Temple of Saturn in Rome (Castagnoli, F., Foro Romana, Milan, 1957Google Scholar, fig. 51)belong to the fourth century A.D.

10 Concave volutes are not infrequently found on Italic Ionic, e.g. some capitals in Perugia (Tarchi, U., L'Arte Etrusco-Romana nell'Umbria e nella Sabina, Milan, 1936Google Scholar, Tav. CLII).

11 In Greece the four-sided Ionic capital, used to turn the corner of an Ionic colonnade, seems to be as early as the fifth century B.C. Some interesting late Hellenistic examples found in the Mahdia wreck are described in Karthago VII, 1956, 80–1Google Scholar, pl. v.

12 The best known are the capitals of the Erechtheum in Athens (Stevens, G. P., etc., The Erechtheum, Harvard, 1927Google Scholar, pls. XXII and XXXVI.

13 See above, note 7.

14 Scritti in onore di B. Nogara, Vatican, 1937, 395–402Google Scholar, Tav. LVII. For this and other early examples, Ziino art. cit.

15 Only one marble example lacking these rosettes is known to me; it is in the Magazzino Galli of the Vatican Museums (Inv. no. 4952) and is probably Julio-Claudian. There are no rosettes on the Pompeian examples (fig. II).

16 For these capitals, Kähler, H., Die römischen Kapitelle des Rheingebietes, Berlin, 1939, 7–8Google Scholar, Beil. 2., nos. 4, 8, 9.

17 Described by K. Ronczewski, ‘Einige Spielarten von Pilasterkapitellen,’ in Arch. Anz. 1934, col. 31 ff., Abb. 15–18.

18 Kahler, art. cit. 196.

19 The illustration is taken from Rossini, , Gli Archi Trionfali, Rome, 1836Google Scholar, Tav. XXXVII.

20 Pietrangeli, C., L'Arco di Traiano a Benevento, Documentario Fotografico, Athenaeum, 1943Google Scholar.

21 e.g. the capital in S. Maria in Cosmedin, Lugli, G., Roma Antica, il Centro Monumentale, Rome, 1946, 586Google Scholar, fig. 177.

22 For the date of the building, Hülsen, Ch. in Toebelmann, F., Römische Gebälke, Teil 1, Heidelberg, 1923, 136–8Google Scholar.

23 Deichmann, F. W., Frühchristliche Kirchen in Rom, Basel, 1948, 25–30Google Scholar, pls. 10–11. Deichmann believes that this set of capitals is contemporary with the building (i.e. fourth century A.D.) but points out that they are not typical of late Roman Composite; see also Röm. Mitt 54, 1939, 99 ff.Google Scholar, Abb. 7.

24 It is possible, but unlikely, that one or two of these capitals (e.g. Deichmann, Taf. II) are fourth century copies made to complete the set.

25 Toebelmann, o.c. 1–12.

26 A very interesting example is the frieze thought to come from the interior of the Temple of Divus Julius; one fragment has carving of high quality, the rest is far less skilful, for example, the fragment illustrated by P. Gusman, o.c. III, 1914, pl. 170.

27 Kähler, o.c. Beil. 2, no. 1 (Cori), no. 5 (Aquinum); Beil. 1, no. 6 (Riinini).

28 For the temple see G. Lugli in Atti Accad. Naz. di S. Luca n.s. 1, 1951–2, 26–55, figs. 16 A–C (capitals).

29 Some of the details of Augustan acanthus leaf carving are described by J. B. Ward Perkins and D. E. Strong in a forthcoming article in Papers of the British School at Rome.

30 Kraus, T., Die Ranken der Ara Pacis, Berlin, 1953Google Scholar, Taf. 17.

31 Kähler, o.c. 7–9.

32 The well-known capital illustrated here (pl. XV, 9) was found near the Mausoleum of Hadrian and is the most elaborate example in this series; the leaf carving is very similar to that of the S. Costanza capitals; the capital has no connection with the Mausoleum of Hadrian (see PBSR. XXI, 1953, 147Google Scholar).

33 Contrast pl. XIV, 1 and 2.

34 Kähler, o.c. Beil. 2, nos. 9 and 8.

35 Unpublished; the astragal on the capital in the Mausoleum of Hadrian (pl. XV, 9) is also very similar.

36 Unpublished; the form of the cymation is certainly very early, being closely related to the Sicilian version of this motif from which the Roman form developed (see Shoe, L. T., Profiles of Western Greek Mouldings, American Academy in Rome, 1952Google Scholar, text-figs, 5 and 6). The classification used here for types of cymation ornament is that adopted in PBSR. XXI, 1953, 131Google Scholar, fig. 1.

37 See Wegner, M., Ornamente kaiserzeitlicher Bauten Roms: Soffiten, Cologne, 1957, 48–9Google Scholar, for some dated examples.

38 Examples in Kähler, o.c. Beil. 2, nos. 2 and 3.

39 For example, the capitals of the Temple of Artemis at Sardis; H. C. Butler, Sardis 11, pt. 1, 64 ff., figs. 70 ff.

40 Sala 1, no. 9544; unpublished.

41 The characteristic features of this cyma reversa are the broad-set arches with a tight loop at the top and the broad ‘webbed’ tongue (cf. a stucco wall cornice in the Villa at Boscoreale, Lehmann, o.c. 9, fig. 5 (after Barnabei)). The form is not known after 20 B.C.

42 The climax is reached with the capitals re-used in the nave of S. Maria in Trastevere; two of these capitals seem to be Flavian, the others are Severan.

43 Unpublished; it used to lie near the restored columns of the Temple of Apollo Sosianus.

44 These details are discussed in the forthcoming article in PBSR. by J. B. Ward Perkins and D. E. Strong cited above (n. 29).

45 For the Apollo Sosianus form, Bull. Com. LXVIII, 1940, 21Google Scholar, fig. II, and 34, fig. 26; Wegner's dating (o.c. 104–7) of the Temple to Flavian times has nothing in its favour. The large group of fragments lying in the area of the Regia in the Forum Romanum (Toebelmann, o.c. Abb. 14–19) may be assigned with fair certainty to the Parthian Arch. The recent excavations on the site are described in Arch. Anz., 1957, cols. 147 ff.

46 cf. the ovolos of the Forum of Augustus (PBSR. XXI, 1953, 121Google Scholar, fig. 1) and of the Temple of Castor in the Forum.

47 Well-known examples of this feature are the capital in the Chiostro Grande of the Museo delle Terme (Gusman, o.c. III, pl. 135) and the capitals of the Temple of Castor (Röm. Mitt. 61, 1954Google Scholar, Tafn. 84–6).

48 The ‘egg-and-dart’ appears, for example, on a cornice with a Claudian (?) inscription in the Domus Augustiana; M. E. Blake, Roman Construction in Italy pl. 10, fig. 4.

49 art. cit. 161 ff., Abb. 21–2 and 30.

50 Zorzi, G., I disegni delle Antichità di Andrea Palladio, Venice, 1958Google Scholar, fig. 12 (attributed to G. M. Falconetto).

51 y Cadafalch, J. Puig, L'Arquitectura Romana a Catalunya 1, Barcelona, 1934, 331–3Google Scholar, fig. 432.

52 ibid. figs. 432 f.

53 ibid. fig. 434; the restoration is clearly inaccurate.

54 See above, p. 120.

55 Scrinari, V., I Capitelli Romani della Venezia Giulia e dell'Istria, Padua, 1956Google Scholar, fig. 43.

56 Miss Scrinari (p. 43) assigns it to the second century A.D. but without great conviction.

57 Le Bas, P., Voyage Archéologique en Grèce et en Asie Mineure (ed. Reinach, ), Paris, 1888Google Scholar, pl. 30 bis.

58 The earliest example known in Asia Minor is the capital of the Temple of Rome and Augustus at Mylasa: R. Pococke, A Description of the East and some other countries II, pt. II, pl. LV, p. 61. The temple is dated between 12 B.C. and A.D. 14; it is doubtful whether Pococke's drawing can be accepted as accurate in detail (see also Dinsmoor, W. B., The Architecture of Ancient Greece, London, 1950, 277Google Scholar).

59 The Composite capitals of the Celsus Library at Ephesus (late first century A.D.) are of quite different design (Forschungen in Ephesos V, i).

60 The design and layout of the peristyle is dated by Miss Blake (o.c. 45–6) to the time of Nero.

61 cf. G. B. Piranesi, Opere varie di Architettura pl. 10, F. 2.