Unknown Maker, Roman

This column, carved with birds and delicate winding vines, may come from Hadrian’s Villa, a sprawling estate several miles east of Rome. The Roman Empire was at its most expansive under Hadrian, who developed a love of travel as he maintained the empire’s shifting borders. Hadrian sought to re-create various parts of the empire within the grounds of his massive villa. He also may have tried to re-create a particular time. During the reign of Augustus, acanthus, fruits, animals, and other naturalistic motifs came to represent the prosperity and peace that the emperor had brought. It is possible that Hadrian chose natural imagery to evoke a comparison between Augustus’s leadership and his own.