Fragment of a pilaster or door jamb
- Date de création
- End of the 3rd century
- Material
- Marble
- Dimensions
- H. 197 x l. 64 x P. 12 (cm)
- Inventory number
- Ra 23 a
The double-curved moulding of this pilaster is decorated with palm leaves. A large scroll of foliage and flowers inhabited by birds, butterflies, a lizard, a snake, a snail and a cricket emerge from the lower part of a magnificent acanthus plant.
Scrolls sprouting from the base of an acanthus plant in the form of a candelabrum or, as in these examples found in Chiragan, a succession of volutes ending in flowers, have been a common motif since Greek times. G. Sauron underlined the symbolic significance of the acanthus, so profusely represented on the walls of the marble enclosure of the Altar of Augustan Peace (Ara Pacis Augustae), inaugurated in 13 BC, where this plant was represented on « the largest preserved surface scrolls still extant from Greek and Roman antiquity » G. Sauron, L’histoire végétalisée : ornement et politique à Rome, Paris, 2000, p. 30.. For the monument commissioned by Augustus marked the return of the golden age, after the civil wars that Caesar’s heir had managed to curtail. In other words, this plant as well as animals were put at the service of a political programme, under the aegis of Apollo and vigorously substantiated by the poetry of Virgil G. Sauron, L’histoire végétalisée : ornement et politique à Rome, Paris, 2000, p. 76-80 et 115-116.. The composition proved a great success.
It is possible that the great pilasters in Chiragan served to separate the reliefs of Hercules. Assuming that the medallions of the gods were added to this large marble decoration, the ensemble would then have formed a sort of vast allegorical poem. Victory and renewal were thus placed under divine authority, vectors of good fortune to which the luxuriance of the acanthus plants inhabited by small creatures, also contributed.
P. Capus
Bibliography
- Cazes et al. 1999 D. Cazes, E. Ugaglia, V. Geneviève, L. Mouysset, J.-C. Arramond, Q. Cazes, Le Musée Saint-Raymond : musée des Antiques de Toulouse, Toulouse-Paris. p. 80
- Du Mège 1835 A. Du Mège, Description du musée des Antiques de Toulouse, Toulouse. no 258
- Du Mège 1828 A. Du Mège, Notice des monumens antiques et des objets de sculpture moderne conservés dans le musée de Toulouse, Toulouse. no 110
- Joulin 1901 L. Joulin, Les établissements gallo-romains de la plaine de Martres-Tolosane, Paris. fig. 2 b
- Massendari 2006 J. Massendari, La Haute-Garonne : hormis le Comminges et Toulouse 31/1 (Carte archéologique de la Gaule), Paris. p. 238, fig. 96
- Nodier et al. 1833 C. Nodier, J. Taylor, A. de Cailleux, T. Fragonard, A. Dauzats, Voyages pittoresques et romantiques dans l’ancienne France, Paris. pl. 31 bis
- Rachou 1912 H. Rachou, Catalogue des collections de sculpture et d’épigraphie du musée de Toulouse, Toulouse. no 23 a
- Roschach 1892 E. Roschach, Catalogue des musées archéologiques de la ville de Toulouse : Musée des Augustins, Musée Saint-Raymond, Toulouse. no 23 a
- Bulletin municipal Toulouse 1936 Bulletin municipal Toulouse, Bulletin municipal, Toulouse. p. 587
To cite this notice
Capus P., "Fragment of a pilaster or door jamb", in The sculptures of the roman villa of Chiragan, Toulouse, 2019, online <https://villachiragan.saintraymond.toulouse.fr/en/ark:/87276/a_ra_23_a>.