Cast of mouldings above frieze

From: Temple of Castor and Pollux

RA Collection: Art

On free display in Green Room - South Dining Room

The cast reproduces the quarter round (or ovolo) and astragal mouldings above the undecorated frieze of the Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Roman Forum. The mouldings are decorated with an egg-and-dart motif above a bead-and-reel motif. This is a classical arrangment which has here been carefully carved.

Three columns of this Temple have stood since antiquity and have attracted the attention of artists and antiquarians who called it the Temple of Jupiter Stator. The Temple, however, was actually dedicated to two immortal brothers who were thought to have aided the Romans in an early battle. The extant remains date to c. 10-7 BC when Tiberius restored it for his step-father the Emperor Augustus.

The cast was acquired by the Royal Academy from Thomas Lawrence whose collection was sold on 10 May 1830.