Monopodium in the Shape of a Goat in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, January 2018

Table leg (trapezophoros) with goat head
Roman
Imperial Period
1st–2nd century A.D.

Medium/Technique Marble

Dimensions Overall: 87 × 14.6 × 17.8 cm (34 1/4 × 5 3/4 × 7 in.)
Mounted: 14.6 × 94.6 × 17.8 cm (5 3/4 × 37 1/4 × 7 in.)

Credit Line Benjamin and Lucy Rowland Fund, Morris and Louise Rosenthal Fund, Otis Norcross Fund, John Michael Rodocanachi Fund, Dora S. Pintner Fund, and by exchange from the Everett Fund, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Cornelius C. Vermeule III, Gift of Thomas G. Appleton, Gift of Mrs. W. Ogilvie Comstock, Francis Bartlett Donation, an anonymous gift, Gift of Horace L. Mayer, Gift of Miss Nellie Parney Carter, Gift of Mrs. J. Templeman Coolidge, Gardner Brewer Collection, Gift of H. J. Bigelow, Alfred Greenough Collection, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac O. Rankin, Gift of C. Granville Way, Gift of Joseph H. Clark, Gift of Benjamin W. Crowninshield, Gift of Edward Jackson Holmes, Museum purchase by contribution, Gift of Mrs. Walter Scott Fitz, Gift of Miss Mary B. Comstock, Gift of Mrs. Samuel E. Thorne, Gift of Mrs. Sargent Bradlee, Gift of Eugene Rodman Shippen, Jr., Gift of Miss M. Elizabeth Carter, Gift of Mrs. Clifford Smith, Bequest of Miss Ellen F. Moseley, Gift of Edward Southworth Hawes, and Bequest of George Washington Wales

Accession Number: 2010.372

Collections: Ancient Greece and Rome

Classifications: Sculpture


Description: A large one legged table support (monopodium) carved in the shape of the head of a horned goat with legs emerging from acanthus foliage. The use of a dark grey marble and the motif of the goat head are unusual. Marble tables of Roman date are usually identified as dining room furniture, but evidence from Roman reliefs and frescoes representing dining scenes attest that such single leg table supports were used for holding glassware (a drinks table or in Latin as "vasariae mensae") and not for dining. In fact, most Roman dining tables were probably of wood or plaster or stucco. Sometimes monopods served as stands for cult images in shrines and sanctuaries. Whatever its original function, such a colored marble piece would have been considered a luxurious object.

For how it looked when complete, see MFA 1984.437, miniature bronze table leg in shape of goat head and legs.

Provenance: December 18, 2009, anonymous sale, Gorny and Mosch, Munich, lot 18, to Rupert Wace Ancient Art Ltd., London; January 2010, sold by Wace to Safani Gallery Inc., New York; 2010, sold by Safani to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 16, 2010)

NOTE: According to a signed and notarized statement provided by Bernd Lehmann of Kulmbach, Germany (March 24, 2010), he sold this object in Munich in 2000. This affidavit states that the table leg had belonged to Johannes Behrens (b. 1874 - d. 1947) of Bremen, a naval officer from 1908 until 1939, who traveled in the Mediterranean and South America, leaving his family a collection of objects from all over the world. News reports from 2022 of an antiquities trafficking investigation have cast doubts on the veracity of this ownership history, which has otherwise accompanied objects alleged to be looted.


Text from: collections.mfa.org/objects/539973/table-leg-trapezophoros-with-goat-head