Pair of Large, Scarce Rosso Marble Grand Tour Roman Monuments, Obelisk & Column

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About the Item

About About 22-1/2" Rosso Obelisk with a 25-1/2" Rosso Trajan's Column Solar Obelisk and Trajan's Column, Rome Rosso and nero antico marble Obelisk - This finely-carved model, with heiroglyphics adorning all four sides, is identified as the Solar Monument, with an inscription in gold lettering on the base describing the Roman Emperor Augustus bringing it from Egypt. In 10 BC, it was transported To Rome with the Flaminio Obelisk, and erected in the Campus Martius. It is now in the Piazza Montecitorio. Though it is not the largest obelisk in Rome, it is the most famous, and therefore often confused with the world's tallest standing obelisk, the Lateran, which was brought to Rome much later. Augustus erected it as the gnomon of the Solarium Augusti, his giant sundial (or horologium) in the Campus Martius. The meridian, worked out by the mathematician Facondius Novus, was placed in the center of a surface measuring 160 by 75 metres (525 by 246 ft), constructed from slabs of travertine, on which a quadrant was marked out with bronze letters, with indications of the hours, months, seasons and signs of the zodiac. Besides its function as a solar clock, the obelisk was oriented in such manner so as to cast its shadow on the nearby Ara Pacis on 23 September, Augustus's birthday, which coincided with the autumnal equinox. Column - Trajan's Column, built in the year 113, celebrates Emperor Trajan's victory over the people of Dacia, modern day Eastern Europe. Architecturally, with its spiraling depictions of the Campaign , the column is a Roman invention which became the prototype for victory and monumental columns world wide. Still complete, it stands in the Forum of Trajan in the Roman Forum (though cut off from the main part of the Forum by Mussolini's road construction), and is one of the most important and intact of Rome's ancient monuments. The Rosso and Nero antico marbles from which these models are made are, as the names suggest, antique; which is to say that they were originally quarried in the time of Augustus, at the edges of the Roman Empire. After serial sackings, the Eternal City was awash in brightly-colored, ruined marble, which provided the material for souvenirs (and much else) for a thousand years. That models of ancient Egyptian obelisks, made of red granite from Aswan, are themselves carved of millennia old red marble is apropos. By the 1830s, the supply of ruined Rosso in Rome began to dry up, with ever smaller pieces of this distinctive marble coming available. At 25-1/2" and 22", these models are scarce in both material and size, and they make a striking pair.

Creator:
Roman Stone Carver (Maker)
Dimensions:
Height: 5 in (12.7 cm)Width: 5 in (12.7 cm)Depth: 25.5 in (64.77 cm)
Sold As:
Set of 2
Style:
Grand Tour (In the Style Of)
Materials and Techniques:
Bronze,Marble,Carved,Cast
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
1820-1829
Date of Manufacture:
circa 1825
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use. Dimensions below are for the Trajan's Column. The obelisk is 22.25" x 4 x 4".
Seller Location:
Lafayette, CA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU1143216595491