Porphyry Basin
Unknown · Second century AD (?)
A bath tub over two metres long has been hollowed from a single block of porphyry speckled green and red, with a pair of carved rings on the front like the handles of a giant vessel. Porphyry was the most expensive stone of the Roman world, quarried in the Egyptian eastern desert and reserved for emperors and their palaces. Cutting a basin this size from it, with a smooth interior and even walls, took months of grinding with abrasives, since the stone is harder than steel tools. Run your eye along the rim and you will see the joins where several pieces have been rejoined.
The basin is essentially complete, and the feet, in the form of claws, are modern marble restorations. Such tubs stood in the baths and villas of the Roman elite in the second century, and many were later reused in churches and princely collections. The Louvre bought this one in 1807, in the great purchase of the Borghese collection from Prince Camillo Borghese, and it is displayed among the other porphyry objects of the former riding hall.
Did You Know? The claw feet are modern, but the tub itself was ground out of a single block of imperial porphyry harder than steel.
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