AN ITALIAN GIALLO ANTICO MODEL OF THE TOMB OF SCIPIO EARLY 19TH CENTURY With a Belgian black marble base 11cm high, 21cm wide Provenance: The Simon Neal Collection The tomb of the patrician Scipio family from 3rd century BC to 1st century AD was first discovered in 1614 in a vineyard that lay along the Via Appia, in the vicinity of the Porta Capena, largely forgotten, it was discovered again in 1780, this time having a much greater impact. The tomb of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus was the only one to have survived intact and it captured the imagination of the Italian Grand Tourists, who ordered numerous small-scale copies of it to be carved out of coloured marbles used by the ancients, such as this Giallo Antico variety.