Date de création

4^th century

Material

Marble

Dimensions

H. 35,8 x l. 44 x P. 9,3 (cm)

Inventory number

Ra 25

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This capital was discovered in 1842 in the villa’s former bathing area, a thermal complex excavated between 1840 and 1843 by Société archéologique du Midi de la France D. Cazes et al., Le Musée Saint-Raymond : musée des Antiques de Toulouse, Toulouse-Paris, 1999, p. 75 et fig. p. 81 ; L. Joulin, Les établissements gallo-romains de la plaine de Martres-Tolosane, Paris, 1901, p. 80, pl. V, 29 B.. Two rows of acanthus leaves carved using a trepanning tool decorate the calathus (basket). Here, the vertical pattern is formed by three centrally grooved caulicoles (stalks). Above, a third section in low relief repeats the motif of swirls and volutes that were so popular in the Corinthian decorative system from which this crowning feature originates.

This Corinthian order was however extensively renewed by the sculptors of Late Antiquity. « Corinthian-style » capitals very similar to this one existed in Asia Minor during the Tetrarchy. J. Kramer believes they were produced by a workshop that worked with marble from the quarries of Docimium (Phrygia) C. Balmelle, Les demeures aristocratiques d’Aquitaine : société et culture de l’Antiquité tardive dans le Sud-Ouest de la Gaule (Mémoires 5 – Aquitania, suppl. 10), Bordeaux-Paris, 2001, p. 223-224, fig 113. J. Kramer, Korinthische Pilasterkapitelle in Kleinasien und Konstantinopel : antike und spätantike Werkstattgruppen, Tübingen, 1994, p. 126-127, n^o 7 to 22, l. 1-3.. Due perhaps to the relocation of this workshop, the style was exported, resulting in this type of capital being distributed throughout Syria, Greece and Italy J. Herrmann, R. Tykot, « Some Products from the Dokimeion Quarries : Craters, Tables, Capitals, and Statues, » École française d’Athènes, National center of scientific research « Demokritos », 18e éphorie des antiquités préhistoriques et classiques (eds.), Asmosia VII : Actes Du VIIe Colloque International de l’ASMOSIA Proceedings of the 7th International Conference of the Association for the Study of Marble and Other Stones in Antiquity (Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique), Athens, 2009, pp. 59–75, p. 63..

A particularly instructive piece of information concerning the work discovered in Chiragan comes from analysing the various marbles, a study that began in 2012. This specimen, which is exceptional in Gaul, was indeed carved from Pyrenean marble from Saint-Béat. Thus, the locally sourced material, as well as the style, which can reasonably be attributed to the 4th century, are so many clues that link this capital to the great restoration of the villa, with the installation of a lavish decor created by a workshop that, although it was not oriental, had at least been trained to reproduce works that originated in Micrasia.

P. Capus