拍品專文
A Spaniard by birth and a soldier by profession Trajan (Marcus Ulpius Trajanus) was adopted as successor to the Emperor Nerva and ruled between 98 - 117 A.D. Trajan's empire building skills were universally acclaimed and he soon achieved the title Optimus Princeps, which appears on his coins and monuments. The commemorative column records the military achievements of his Dacian campaigns in the spiral relief frieze. Towards the end of the 18th century reduced copies of Trajan's Column became increasingly sought after. The most famous copy is the two metre high example executed by Luigi Valadier in marble, granite, lapis lazuli, gilt-bronze and silver-gilt, completed in 1780 and preserved in the Schatzkammer of the Residenz in Munich (F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique, Yale, 1981, p. 21, fig. 26.).
Later the column would inspire Napoleon to commemorate the victories of La Grande Armée with a full scale copy in the Place Vendôme, Paris.
Later the column would inspire Napoleon to commemorate the victories of La Grande Armée with a full scale copy in the Place Vendôme, Paris.