Trapezophoron, section

Roman art

This relief was originally part of one of the two trapezophorons – table supports – sectioned into four slabs, later used to decorate bases of statues displayed in this room. This slab features two lion paws, each surmounted by a lion’s head, separated by a rectangular panel with a wide-groove lath frame decorated with a vase from which emerge two descending flowering branches and a large palmette with seven leaves opening upwards.

The production of ornate table supports in the shape of animal paws dates back to the Egyptians; however, it was in the Greek world and, specifically, in the Hellenistic age that this solution greatly developed, when an animal protome was added to the paw, establishing a pattern that remained unvaried throughout the Imperial age.

Object details

Commentary

This slab was probably part of the group of bas-reliefs and statues that were transferred from Villa Pinciana to Palazzo Borghese in Campo Marzio in 1671 to be used as garden decorations; in a second half of the seventeenth century engraving by Venturini illustrating the family’s Garden Fountain we see a fragment of one of the two trapezophorons – a term indicating particularly ornate table supports – with a subject similar to the one on the relief to which the slab belonged (Falda 1691, pl. 12). Between the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the trapezophorons were taken back to the Villa and sectioned into four slabs, which were then used to decorate as many statue bases arranged symmetrically on both sides of Room V when the collection was rearranged.

The relief is decorated at the extremities by two lion paws, each surmounted by a lion’s head, separated by a rectangular panel with a wide groove lath frame decorated by a vase, a kantharos, with a pod shape grooving on the neck from which two flowering branches descend, and with a large seven-leave palmette opening upwards. The crack on the lower rim allows us to recognise CCXXXX as the other side of the trapezophoron here considered, which was sectioned to obtain two slabs, later used, as CCXXVI and CCXXVIII originally part of a second trapezophoron of similar subject, to decorate as many statue bases symmetrically arranged on both sides of Room V.

In Rome, the use of particularly ornate tables (in marble, stone, bronze, wood or with silver damascening) was introduced following 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). Less common, however, was the motif of the palmette stemming from the vase, 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, paired with the aforementioned examples, suggest this piece might date to the second century CE.

Jessica Clementi