Unlike the classical example of
Trajan's Column of
ancient Rome, which has a turned shaft decorated with a single continuous
helical band of low-reliefs depicting Trajan's military might in battle, the twisted column is known to be an eastern motif taken into
Byzantine architecture and decoration. Twist-fluted columns were a feature of some eastern architecture of
Late Antiquity. In the 4th century,
Constantine the Great brought a set of columns to Rome and gave them to the
original St. Peter's Basilica for reuse in the high altar and
presbytery;
The Donation of Constantine, a painting from
Raphael's workshop, shows these columns in their original location. According to tradition, these columns came from the "
Temple of Solomon", even though Solomon's temple was the
First Temple, built in the 10th century BC and destroyed in 586 BC, not the
Second Temple, destroyed in 70 AD. These columns, now considered to have been made in the 2nd century AD, became known as "Solomonic". In actuality, the columns probably came from neither temple. Constantine is recorded as having brought them
de Grecias i.e., from Greece, and they are archaeologically documented as having been cut from Greek marble. A small number of Roman examples of similar columns are known. All that can firmly be said is that they are early and, because they have no Christian iconography in the carving and their early date (before the construction of elaborate churches), are presumably reused from some non-church building. The columns have distinct sections that alternate from ridged to smooth with sculpted grape leaves. Some of these columns remained on the altar until the old structure of St. Peter's was torn down in the 16th century. While removed from the altar, eight of these columns remain part of the structure of St. Peter's. Two columns were placed below the
pendentives on each of the four
piers beneath the dome. Another column can now be observed up close in the St. Peter's Treasury Museum. Other columns from this set of twelve have been lost over the course of time. If these columns really were from one of the
Temples in Jerusalem, the spiral pattern may have represented the oak tree which was the first
Ark of the Covenant, mentioned in Joshua 24:26. These columns have sections of twist-fluting alternating with wide bands of foliated reliefs. From Byzantine examples, the Solomonic column passed to Western
Romanesque architecture. In Romanesque architecture some columns also featured spiraling elements twisted round each other like hawser. Such variety adding life to an arcade is combined with
Cosmatesque spiralling inlays in the cloister of St. John Lateran. These arcades were prominent in Rome and may have influenced the baroque Solomonic column. ==In Baroque architecture==