Marble architectural element - Gallo-Roman 1st century

This magnificent piece of antique marble architecture, probably from a cornice, features fleurons and oves.
Consisting of two decorated friezes, this cornice fragment is part of a body of Gallo-Roman architectural elements. The upper frieze features two four-petal florets, with a central knob carved in relief, each inserted into a recess delimited by a plant roundel. The lower frieze features oves, brooded in spaces separated by geometric elements.
This type of decoration can be found in Gallo-Roman cornices, produced in the 1st century AD and found in the south of France, in more monumental dimensions. Here, in this cornice from the public monument on the Place de la Calade, now preserved in Nîmes at the Musée de la Romanité, we see similar decorations of friezes of sculpted fleurons and oves, separated by geometric elements.
The depth of the carving and the visible traces of the drill bit express the extraordinary quality, albeit fragmentary, of this marble element.