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Source Image: PR204_01_14 of South Side of Arch of Titus

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Description

Cross-section showing the south side of the passageway.

Monument
Arch of Titus 
Monument Part
South Side 
Monument Type
Architecture 
Material(s)
Pentelic Marble (Archaeometric identification)  
Date
circa ad 82 
Keywords
Restoration  
Collections
Arch of Titus, Rome  

Location

Original Location
Rome 

Evidence for working practices

1. Block joint

Process
Placement
Description
The irregular sizes of blocks used for the arch can be seen very clearly in this drawing where they are delineated in red. Only the series of large blocks used for the main reliefs in the passageway had controlled heights, even if their widths were less regular. It should be noted that the moulding above the relief panel was part of the same block as the coffering immediately above it, so there was no direct connection between blocks and the decoration on them. The range of blocks used in the coffering of the soffit of the arch suggests that the decoration on them was carved in place, presumably by carvers working on scaffolding.

Notes

The carvers responsible for this project must have worked standing or crouching close to the surface of the stone and there would have been real danger of them getting chips in their eyes. On this point Peter Rockwell notes that before the introduction of safety glasses at Carrara relatively recently it was very common for carvers to have to have chips removed from their eyes regularly. Whether some form of safety eyewear was used in the Roman period, in the form of gauze tied around the head, is unknown.

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