MARBLE PILASTER CAPITALS FROM THE PANTHEON, C. 125 CE. THE BRITISH MUSEUM
The whole attic register of the Pantheon's interior decoration was heavily debated from the C15 onward. Its combination of pilasters with simplified composite capitals like the ones we see here and coloured marble panels had no obvious relationship with the lower register. Some theorised that the attic was a late-antique substitution. In the 1750s, restoration work that had already significantly changed the marbles of the lower walls was extended to the attic and dome, and most of the marble revetment of the attic was found to be in a perilous condition, which crumbled when attempts were made to reattach it. In 1756-1757 the marbles of the attic were removed and heaped up in front of the portico to be disposed of. Some capitals ended up in the Vatican Museums and others made their way into foreign collections. A new, very simple attic decoration was completed by 1758, by the Sienese architect Paolo Posi, who received universally negative reviews. The French abbot of Saint-Non, visiting Rome in 1759, wrote: "now the building is no more than a large, round hall, a huge coffee-house amazing only for its shape and vastness".
#ReliefWednesday takes us to the #BritishMuseum to find four #pilaster #capitals from the upper register of the #Pantheon in #Rome, from c. 124 CE, after the whole band of decoration was removed in 1757 and replaced with a series of faux marble panels and ædicules. #AncientBluesky 🏺