A structure built at the head of a well, a puteal, is often mistaken for an altar. This puteal was formerly known as the altar of the twelve gods. Despite its Roman provenance and workmanship, it is decorated with Greek gods in procession, and is carved in a deliberately pseudo-Archaic Greek style
Number:
449
Material:
Marble
Location of Original:
Rome, Capitoline Museum
Size:
0.53m
Accession:
Purchased 1884
References:
Hauser: Die Neu Attischen Reliefs (1889), 60, no.86
Stuart-Jones: Catalogue of the Capitoline Museum (1912), 106
Walston: Catalogue of Casts in the Museum of Classical Archaeology (1889), 26, no.105
Date:
Roman
Provenance:
Found in the eighteenth century in a vineyard outside the Porta del Popolo, the main gate in Rome leading northwards out of the ancient city
