3-095-978 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

Cast of impost of interior passage between main and side arches, late 18th century-early 19th century. Cast reproducing the impost or projecting moulding from which the arch springs. It is from the interior passageway in the Arch of Septimius Severus in Rome. The Arch, dedicated in AD/CE 203 in the Roman Forum, is at the foot of the Capitoline Hill. This particular detail in this impost is unusual in that the repeating decoration of the cavetto or concae moulding, has a figural element, a bearded head. The cast was from the collection of Thomas Lawrence which was sold on 10 May 1830.