SPOLIA IN THE GRAND STAIRCASE, 1791. PALAZZO BRASCHI After almost a century of popes refraining from nepotism, Pius VI Braschi threw the rules-based order into the trash so he could enrich his nephew, Luigi Onesti Braschi. To construct the scalone d'onore or grand staircase in the new palazzo Braschi, Pius stripped 12 columns in rose granite from the 1475-1479 cloister of the Friars in the Ospedale di S. Spirito and more from the nuns' cloister, replacing them with travertine substitutes. They originated in a large ancient portico called the Hecatostylon, adjacent to the theatre of Pompey. At the same time, Pius cut veneers of rose granite from the huge memorial column of Antoninus Pius to make the pilasters at right. It had been extracted from the hill of Montecitorio in 1705, badly damaging it in the process, and which was later irreparably fractured in a fire in 1759. This column was used like an organ donor to repair the obelisks at Montecitorio and atop the Spanish Steps.

A plethora of #spolia decorates the grand staircase of #palazzoBraschi in #Rome, but we will confine ourselves to the rose granite #pilasters around the walls, sliced out of the #AntonineColumn in 1791, and the rose granite columns at right, taken from the Ospedale di S. Spirito. #AncientBluesky 🏺