By fall 1905, the architect Charles Follen McKim had secured for the Rotunda of Morgan's library two freestanding columns of black-veined Africano marble from the Roman art dealer Alessandro Marcocchia (AZTK) and two freestanding columns in rose-toned breccia from Georges Williams in Rome. The renowned American lighting designer E. F. Caldwell fitted these four columns with alabaster bowls carved with delicate classical-themed reliefs showing a grape harvest. [A012762]. The alabaster bowls were originally part of a hanging fixture but were adapted to sit atop the columns. The Morgan preserves two sets of drawings for the columns, indicating that they were designed by Marcocchia's studio in Rome: this sheet with studies for the Africano pair purchased in November 1905 as well as two studies for the matching rose-toned breccia columns that were acquired from Georges Williams the previous month (2022.13-14, and AZTK). These four columns provided artificial illumination for the Rotunda, which was also lit by an oculus in the dome. These were in addition to four standards from E.F. Caldwell that were supplied in 1905 but removed in 1910, with three of them sent to the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, where they were modified by Caldwell and gilded.
Inscribed at upper right: A. Marcocchia. Roma; numbered "1" in red at lower right.
Drawing, with recorded dimensions, of a column of "Africano" marble, being one of two purchased in 1905 from Roman art dealer Alessandro Marcocchia for the McKim Rotunda of the Morgan Library.