Marble pillar with Neo-Attic reliefs

A fine example of classicizing art, this marble pillar bears on all four sides reliefs in the Neo-Attic style. The themes are drawn from the world of Dionysus. A flowering acanthus plant carved in low relief occupies one of the long sides, while on the other, in higher relief, two female figures with billowing garments surmount a Silenus herm. Their attributes identify them as Horae, the personifications of the Seasons. At the top is summer holding a garland in one hand and a sheaf of wheat in the other. At the bottom, autumn carries pomegranates and bunches of grapes in the fold of her himation, while a third figure, now missing, most probably represented spring. Both short sides are decorated with a thyrsos, the god’s characteristic staff.
This work is notable for its unusual iconography. Decorative relief pillars are predominately adorned by elaborate trailing vegetation motifs; human figures and animals, if present, play only a secondary role in the composition. Mythological scenes as attested here are rare.