Visigothic or Merovingian capital, 6th - 7th century A.D. Marble. Provenance: - Private collection, Georges C. S. (1833 - 1909), Château de B., France. - Private collection, by the new owners of the castle since 1938, who had acquired it with all its contents. - Formerly in the private French collection of Gustave Clément-Simon (1833-1909), at the Château de Bach, Naves, Corrèze. - It passed to Georges Couture with the sale of the castle and his entire collection in 1938. - Since then, it has passed into the hands of the same family. Measurements: 30 cm high and 30 cm long. The creation of the Corinthian order is attributed to the Greek sculptor Callimachus, in the 4th century B.C. It is basically the same as the Ionic order, differing from it in the shape and size of the capital. It is the most ornate of the three main classical orders, and although it is of Greek origin it was mainly used in Roman architecture. When the Visigoths left Italy with Ataulfus, they went towards the center and south of Gaul, passing from there to the Iberian Peninsula. Then, the Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse (Toulouse, France), managed to conquer more territory in the peninsula, until Alaric II was defeated by the Franks, losing the French possessions and giving way to the so-called Visigothic Kingdom of Toledo, a period of great importance in the arts (characterized by a clear maintenance of Roman models along with Byzantine influences) and culture in general, which ended with the entry of the Muslims in the early seventh century.