Style Napoleon III / Ref.1441

White marble mantel with detached columns

Dimensions
Width 61''   155cm
Height 59'' ½  151cm
Depth: 19'' ¾  50cm
Inner width: 35'' ⅜  90cm
Inner height: 43'' ¼  110cm

Origin:
19th century, from a building facing Notre Dame in Paris

Status:
Perfect condition. In situ photos. The mantel is in our workshop for cleaning and new pictures will be made shortly.

Neo-colonial style grey Arabescato marble mantel. Very architectural in style this mantel faithfully follows the Roman Doric order with detached columns fluted in the top two thirds, which support the entablature that is decorated with a frieze alternating triglyphs and plain square recessed metopes. Original enameled insert included.

The Roman Doric order In their original Greek version, Doric columns stood directly on the flat pavement of a temple without a base; their vertical shafts were fluted with 20 parallel concave grooves; and they were topped by a smooth capital that flared from the column to meet a square abacus at the intersection with the horizontal entablature that they carried. Pronounced features of both Greek and Roman versions of the Doric order are the triglyhps and metopes. The triglyphs are decoratively grooved and represent the original wooden end-beams, which rest on the plain architrave that occupies the lower half of the entablature. Under each triglyph are peglike guttae that appear as if they were hammered in from below to stabilize the post-and-beam construction. A triglyph is centered above every column, with another (or sometimes two) between columns, though the Greeks felt that the corner triglyph should form the corner of the entablature, creating an inharmonious mismatch with the supporting column. The spaces between the triglyphs are the metopes. They may be left plain, or they may be carved in low relief. The endmost triglyph is centered over the column rather than occupying the corner of the architrave like in the Greek Doric order. Below the caps of the columns, an astragal molding encircles the column like a ring. Crown moldings soften transitions between frieze and cornice and emphasize the upper edge of the abacus. Roman Doric columns also have moldings at their bases and stand on low square pads or are even raised on plinths. In the Roman Doric mode, columns are not invariably fluted.

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