Large Pair Of Salomonic Columns, 18th Century Italy

Large pair of Solomonic columns of the Italian Baroque. Gold and Silver leaved Helical columns in carved wood and stucco (plaster), characterized by a spiraling twisting shaft associated with Corinthian capitals. The twisted S-curve shaft gives energy and dynamism to the traditional column form which fits these qualities that are characteristically Baroque.

Size: H 220cm - diameter at the base 55 cm -  diamter of the body circa 40 cm - W of the capital 58 cm

Late 18^th century, Italy.

Lit: The Solomonic column also called barley-sugar column, in architecture, so called because there were similar columns at the Apostle’s tomb in Old St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. According to legend, they had been imported from the Temple of Solomon in ancient Jerusalem by Emperor Constantin. When Gian Lorenzo Bernini worked at New St. Peter’s Basilica (finished in 1633), he echoed the salomónica design in the columns that supported the baldachin over the altar above the tomb. The structure, similar in appearance to the twisted stalk of a barley-sugar plant, became popular in Romanesque architecture and the type of Spanish Baroque called Churrigueresque.

During the succeeding century, Solomonic columns were commonly used in altars, furniture, and other parts of design. Sculpted vines were sometimes carved into the spiraling cavetto of the twisting columns, or made of metal, such as gilt bronze.