Cast of composite capital

The cast seems to reproduce the top of a column from an ancient Roman building. It was probably taken from the Baths of Caracalla, though the original capital can no longer be located. The Baths were known to antiquarians and artists as early as the 1500s and in 1546 Pope Paul III Farnese began a large-scale excavation. The Royal Academy's acquisition of this and others from the Farnese excavations at the Palatine remains unclear.