Fragment Of Fluted Torso Column In Marble - Roman Empire - 5th Century Ad

This fragment comes from a shaft of a fluted marble column. According to the definition given by Louis de Jancourt in the first edition of the Encyclopédie of 1751 "We call fluted torso column, those whose flutes follow the contour of its shaft in a spiral line throughout its length" (Volume 16, p. 434 ). This type of column appeared in the Roman Empire around 400 AD. Clearing itself of the classical architectural orders that punctuated all of Antiquity, the architecture of the early Christian period nevertheless reinvested plastic canons pre-existing. Indeed, the column has been a major architectural and decorative element since the beginnings of Greek buildings. However, the orders are well established and undergo only very few modifications until Late Antiquity, a period which sees the birth of a new era of the latter, as is remarkable in this fragment of barrel. It is possible to compare it to two other Roman casks dated c. 400-500 certainly coming from the old paleochristian church of La Daurade in Toulouse and preserved in the museum of Archeology of Toulouse, the Saint Raymond museum. Our fragment was hollowed out, certainly in order to make a mortar. This practice of reusing architectural elements is very common. Indeed, old pieces of buildings could either be used to make new objects, such as mortars, holy water fonts, etc. and other times they kept their initial function, but reassembled in order to adapt to aesthetic expectations. of their time and fill in the gaps.