Pair of columns in ribboned alabaster, Rome 17th century

Pair of columns in banded alabaster, Rome 17th century


Rare pair of cylindrical columns in banded alabaster from Montauto*.

Very nice quality of alabaster with a particularly luminous polishing that reveals translucent ribbons of calcification similar to those of onyx.

The quadrangular pedestals with molded bases are in white Carrara marble.

Good condition, minor restorations.

Italian work, Rome around 1650.

Height : 186 cm

*The alabaster of Montauto is one of the most beautiful varieties of Italian alabaster, used since antiquity.

In the second volume of his "Encyclopédie méthodique" the famous French geologist, Nicolas Desmaret (1725-1815), confirms that :

"Italy can be rightly called the homeland of alabaster, the only territory of Volterra in Tuscany, provides about twenty varieties, and the most beautiful alabaster is drawn from the quarries of Siena & that of Montauto in the same region is yellow, semi-transparent, with white wavy veins."



Similar columns in alabaster of Montauto :



-The four columns of the baldachin made by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, known as Le Bernin ; for the Basilica San Grisogono, in the Trastevere district of Rome.



Our opinion :



At first glance, our pair of columns makes us feel the magnificence of the eternal city of Rome, with its taste for the rarest materials.

The sparkling reflections of our columns and their polishings worthy of the most beautiful precious stones indicate without the slightest doubt that they come from a prestigious building, religious (baldachin or chapel of a basilica) or civil (staircase or porch of a palace).



Ever since the Roman Empire, the city has wished to display its wealth by exposing in its monuments the most beautiful stones, from quarries scattered all over the world, Europe but also Africa or Asia Minor...

The blocks of several tons cross the mountains and the seas as well as the deserts to be brought to Rome.

This work of lapidary will last through the centuries, until the modern era when the remains of ancient blocks will be reworked and reused.

Our columns can be integrated into an architecture, they can also be used as a support for busts or marble vases, or simply be enthroned in the center of a