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. The relief features at its extremities 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 trapezophorons in the shape of animal paws dates back to the late Classical period, and greatly developed during the Hellenistic age, 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 in the city Palazzo 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).The trapezophorons were later taken back 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 when, during the nineteenth century, the collection was rearranged in the Casino.

The relief presents 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 with a pod-shape grooving on the neck from which two flowering branches descend, and with a large seven-leave palmette opening upwards. The leonine protome, rendered in a very schematic manner, presents a broad snout, open jaws containing partly preserved large canines, and a thick mane.

On the basis of the size of the slab, we can identify CCXXVI as the other side of the present trapezophoron, sectioned to obtain two slabs, later used – as CCXXXXII and CCXXXX, originally part of a second trapezophoron of similar subject – to decorate as many statue bases.

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 (Montanari 2007, pp. 117-119). In particular, the production of trapezophorons with animal-paw shape or decorations dates back to the late Classical period, and greatly developed during the Hellenistic age, when animal protomes (mostly griffons, but also lions, panthers, birds) or anthropomorphic protomes (Sileni, Erotes, generic female figures, etc.) were added to the paws, establishing a paradigm that was to remain unaltered throughout the Imperial age (Moss 1988, pp. 20-26). 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).

The particular nature of works of decorative craftsmanship, characterised by ornamental details that remained in use over long periods of time without substantial changes, makes it difficult to date this particular piece; however, the refined execution and the abovementioned comparable examples allow us to generically date it to the second century CE.

Jessica Clementi