Public Domain

Fragment of decorated wall

450-500

Scroll

Fragment of decorated wall

450-500

Physical Qualities Marble, 26 x 26 3/4 x 3 in. (66 x 67.9 x 7.6 cm.)

Credit Line Antioch Subscription Fund

Object Number 1940.170a

The affluent citizens of Antioch spent their summer months in the suburb of Daphne where natural springs filled the pools and fountains of their fine country houses with refreshing clear water. During the excavation of Antioch, this marble slab was discovered next to the remains of a fountain on the site of one of Daphne's finest villas. Scholars believe that this fragment was once part of an ornamental panel attached to a revetment (a low wall) in front of a fountain decorated with mosaic pavement. Carved on one side only, the panel features an active surface of twisting stems and branches of acanthus leaves that grow outwards only to bend back onto themselves. Holes drilled deep into the stone outline the leaves, producing an intricate, lace-like network.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Late Antique and Early Christian Art", November 18, 1977-February 12, 1978

Christine Kondoleon, Worcester Art Museum, "Antioch: The Lost Roman City", October 7, 2000-January 7, 2001, no. 65, pp. 178-179, ill.; circulated to Cleveland Museum of Art, March 18-June 3, 2001, and The Baltimore Museum of Art, September 6-December 30, 2001

Richard Stillwell, ed., "Antioch-on-the-Orontes", Vol. III, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1941, no. 231, pp. 169-170, ill. pl. 42.

Kurt Weitzmann, ed., "Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century," New York: 1979, no. 594, pp. 667-68.

Christine Strube, 'Die Kapitelle von Qasr ibn Wardan: Antiochia un Konstantinopel im 5. Jahrhundert,' "JAC 26," 1983, pp. 79-81, pl. 18c.

Marlia Mundell Mango, "Silver from Early Byzantium: The Kaper Koraon and Related Treasures," 1986, no. 100, pp. 272-273.

Kondoleon, Christine, ed. Antioch: The Lost Ancient City. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press in association with the Worcester Art Museum, 2000, p. 178, ill.