Athena Review Image Archive ™
Tivoli: Hadrian's Villa, water leaf capital (1910 photo)
Tivoli: Hadrian's Villa, water leaf capital (Bell 1910; Gertrude Bell Archive NcU)
This photograph by Gertrude Bell at Hadrian's Villa, taken in March, 1910, shows a water leaf motif carved in the capital of a column.
Water leaf capitals show direct influence from Egyptian capitals, which were frequently carved with papyrus, water lily, and other plant motifs. Gertrude Bell recorded a number of water capitals in her March, 1910 photos at Rome and Hadrian`s Villa. The period of Hadrian's reign (AD 116-135) also corresponds with a time of considerable influence from Egypt in religion, with the spread of the cult of Isis to Italy.
The Gertrude Bell Archive is at Newcastle University in England.
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