Trapezophoron, section

Roman art

The slab belongs to one of two trapezophorons – table supports – with the same subject, sawn through to produce four slabs, then used to decorate as many statue bases on display in this room.

The relief presents two lion’s paws at the ends, each surmounted by a lion’s head, separated by a rectangular panel with a wide-grooved lath frame decorated with a vase from which two flowering branches descend downwards and a large palmette with seven leaves opening upwards.

The decoration of furniture supports is attested already among the Egyptians and Mesopotamian peoples, but the greatest diffusion of this practice can be ascribed to the Hellenistic and Roman ages.

Object details

Commentary

This slab may be among those transferred in 1671 together with statues and bas-reliefs from Villa Pinciana to Palazzo Borghese in Campo Marzio to decorate its garden; in an engraving of the Fountain of the Garden of the family’s city palazzo by Venturini from the second half of the seventeenth century, there is a fragment of one of the two trapezophorons – a term indicating table supports, particularly those with ornaments – with a similar subject, to which the relief originally belonged (Falda 1691, pl. 12). At a later date, however, the trapezophorons were relocated to Villa Pinciana and sectioned into four slabs, which were then used to decorate as many statue bases arranged symmetrically on both sides of Room V, on the occasion of the new display of the collection commissioned by Camillo Borghese between 1819 and 1832 in the Casino that had been impoverished by the sale of antique works to his brother-in-law Napoleon Bonaparte.

The relief presents two lion paws, each surmounted by a lion’s head, separated by a rectangular panel with a wide-grooved lath frame decorated with a kantharos: the vase presents a small foot, a wide body with pod-shaped grooving, an expanded neck decorated with a beaded collar and a raised rim, crowned by a flared lip. From the mouth of the vase emerge three bilobed leaves with ribs in relief, from which rises a palmette with seven lobes; the central one is lanceolate ending in three extremities, while the lateral ones present wider ends terminating in hooks pointing towards the centre. Two flowering branches also develop from the neck, descending downwards and partially blending with the loops of the ‘acanthus’ vase. The leonine protome is very schematic, with a broad snout and open jaws with partly preserved pronounced canines.

Based on the size of the slab, we can recognise in inv. CCXXVIII the other side of the trapezophoron, which was sectioned into two slabs, later used, as were inv. CCXXXXII and CCXXXX originally part of a second trapezophoron of similar subject, to each decorate a statue base.

In Rome, the use of ornate tables (in marble, stone, bronze, wood or with silver damascening) was introduced following the oriental conquests (first century BCE) when products of Hellenistic artistic craftsmanship became widespread. The production of trapezophorons with a theriomorphic paw shape or decorations dates back to the late Classical period and had a great development in the Hellenistic period, when the animal protome was also added, a trend that remained unaltered throughout the Imperial age (Montanari 2007, pp. 117–119). In particular, our trapezophoron falls within type 4 of Christopher F. Moss’s classification, in which the feline paw is associated with a protome that, in most of the known cases, is a griffin, or otherwise anthropomorphic (Erotes, Sileni, Atlases, generic female or male figures) or theriomorphic (lions, panthers, birds, dogs or goats; Moss 1988, pp. 20–26). Less common, however, is the palmette protruding from the vase motif, which is more frequent in the decoration of fictile and marble antefixes (Anselmino 1977, pp. 120 ff.; Pensabene, Sanzi di Mino 1983, pp. 34 ff.). Closely relatable examples can be found in some marble antefixes in the Palazzo Mattei courtyard datable to the second century CE (Carinci 1982, pp. 300 ff., nos. 141, 144) and in two trapezophorons in the National Roman Museum (MNR, invv. 746; 747; Fileri 1985, pp. 118–119), particularly with regard to the ‘acanthus’ vase handles.

The accurate rendition of the support and the refined decoration, together with the aforementioned related examples, suggest this piece might date to the second century CE.

Jessica Clementi