Ionic capital; Roman Empire, I-II centuries AD. Carved marble. Measures: 24 x 37 x 40 cm. Roman capital in carved marble. The carving follows the foliated decoration with double volute characteristic of the Ionic order, between which are arranged rows of ovals and darts. Below the volutes, a crown of skillfully carved acanthus surrounds the capital. Roman architecture took its models from the Greek art of Antiquity, but always adapting those examples to its own requirements and particularities, both in function and aesthetics, giving rise to a series of variants and important differences, although we can speak of the existence of the three Greek architectural orders in Roman art, to which would add the Tuscan (derived from the Greek Doric) and the composite. When comparing the capital in question (in which the Ionic and Corinthian orders merge in a certain way) with other ancient Greek Ionic capitals, such as those of the 6th century Temple of Artemis in Ephesus or, a purer variant, in the Erechtheus of the Acropolis of Athens, it is possible to appreciate the differences between the Greek works of this type and the Roman ones. The volutes are not arranged in line with the body of the capital, and the strings of beads do not appear where they usually do in the Greek Ionic volutes, for example. In this sense, the capital shown is closer to the composite order. Note the similarity with preserved Roman capitals such as that of the Triumphal Arch of Septimius Severus (Rome, 203 A.D.), those preserved from the Balbi or Balbo Theater in Rome, with the scrolls worked in the form of scrolls in a very similar way to those that would surely be from Hadrian's time. Dimensions 24 x 37 x 40 cm.