3-044-414 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Fragment of Shaft with Laurel Branches and Birds, late 1st-early 2nd century A.D. Additional Info: The function of this fragmentary object is unclear. It may represent the shaft of a piece of marble furniture (such as a candelabrum) or it may be an architectural finial. The upper part of the object is a four-sided relief representing eight overlapping branches of laurel leaves with berries. The crisply rendered foliage is separated by deeply drilled channels. Several birds, carved nearly in the round, perch on the tops of the branches. The object is broken off at the top and the bottom. The top surface preserves a knob-like protrusion which extended upwards. Below the broken-off lower edges of the laurel branches, the object tapers into a narrow cylinder decorated with different kinds of leaves executed in shallow relief.