3-096-015 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

Cast of composite capital, late 18th century-early 19th century. The cast seems to reproduce a composite capital which probably comes from the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, though the original capital can no longer be located. The excavations of the Baths, as those of the Palatine Hill, were funded by the Farnese and were highly visible. The Baths were known to antiquarians and artists as early as the 1500s and in 1546 Pope Paul III Farnese began a large-scale excavation.