Front view of an antique column shaft and base, decorated with figures in high relief, with inscription. See 910377; dal Pozzo A.IX, pp. 27-28, 176-177 for discussion of drawings by Ligorio in Cassiano dal Pozzo's Paper Museum.

The Ligorian authorship of this drawing, bound in the album Buildings and Architectural Ornaments amidst a series of drawings of Renaissance ornaments by Salviati and others, was recognized by A. Noach (in unpublished notes, compiled 1947–60).

The drawing shows the front view of an antique column shaft and base, decorated with figures in high relief. Its companion on the mount, RCIN 910742, which shows the rear view, probably shared the same sheet before both were silhouetted. The Attic base stands on a square plinth; its lower torus is decorated with ovoli. At the foot of the shaft is a narrow frieze, displaying weapons and armour. The bottom row of figures has two standing barbarian captives; the second row, two trophies, flanking a shield, one with a Phrygian cap; the third, two tritons supporting the inscription tablet; and, at the top, two winged victories, one carrying a palm.

The inscription on the panel reads: IMP.CAES. DIVI.F.AVGUSTV[S]/ PONT. MAX. TRIB. POT / XXIII. P. P. EXSC(riptum). PORT(icu) / NEPTVNI. CONS. I. IMP/ P.CXVIIII. IN PRONAON.P.XXX (‘The Emperor Caesar, son of Divus [Julius], Augustus, pontifex maximus, tribunician power for the 23rd time, Pater Patriae, written down/copied in the Port(icus) of Neptune, Consul for the 1st time, Imperator, 118 feet, across front 30 feet’). The final ‘S’ of ‘AUGUSTUS’ and most of the last ‘X’ were cut off when the drawing was silhouetted. The EXSC could also be expanded ‘EX S(enatu) C(onsultu), by decree of the Senate’, and there are some corrections in dark ink over paler ink: ‘I.IMP’ was changed to ‘LAT.’ (latus = ‘side’). Michael Crawford advises that it seems to be both a record of an inscription to Augustus, and a description of its find-spot, run together (personal communication, see dal Pozzo A.IX, cat. 70). The words ‘PORT NEPTUNI’ might be expanded to porticus Neptuni and connected with the Porticus Neptuni at Puteoli, to which Cicero refers (Academica 2, 25, 80; Sgobbo 1977, p. 286; cf. also the Harbour Landscape found on the Esquiline hill in Rome: A.I.70 and p. 266).

Another drawing of the front view of the column in the Paper Museum attributed to Battista Franco, uses the (otherwise blank) inscription panel to give the date 1538 and a note that it was in the harbour of Baia, near Puteoli (present location unknown; previously Stirling-Maxwell Scupture album, fol. 110, see dal Pozzo A.IX, cat. 333). This second drawing agrees broadly in the arrangement of the figures, but the base differs significantly in details and the shaft is capped with an enriched Doric capital supporting what appears to be the lower part of a statue. The drawing is clearly independent of Ligorio, which makes the possibility of the monument being his invention less likely, although that cannot be wholly discounted.

A parallel pair of drawings in the Hermitage Destailleur-Polofzoff Album ‘B’ agrees very closely with Ligorio (St Petersburg, Hermitage, Destailleur-Polofzoff Album ‘B’, fol. 73v). The only differences are that the frieze at the bottom of the shaft, and the base, are not recognizable as such, and the inscription in the panel is replaced by the words: futrova i(n) baia et/ adesso é i(n) napoli (‘was found in Baiae and now is in Naples’). Judging from the differences it seems likely that rather than being copied from Ligorio, both pairs of drawings are studies after the original, or copy the same prototype.

Free-standing columns bearing honorary statues were quite common, commemorating military or naval victories, and could be richly decorated. The best surviving examples are the Columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius in Rome, both of which are Doric like the present one. There is also the Jupiter Column at Mainz, erected between AD 59 and 67 in honour of Nero. It stood on a double pedestal and comprised an Attic base, a shaft of five figured drums and a Corinthian capital, supporting a statue of Jupiter on a pedestal (D.E.E. Kleiner, Roman Sculpture, 1992, p. 157f.).

Text adapted from Ian Campbell, The Paper Museum of Cassiano dal Pozzo: A Catalogue Raisonné. A.IX: Ancient Roman Topography, 2004, cat.70.