surmounts a fountain. This obelisk and the one in the Piazza Minerva
were erected as pairs in Rome. They stood before the Temple of Isis
and Serapis in the Campus Martius. There is a small relief in the
Villa Ludovisi, representing in its background a temple with four
Ionic columns, and to the left an Egyptian obelisk. In the foreground,
to the left, is the figure of Minerva, fronting a reclining female
figure holding a vessel full of ears of corn (Isis?). By her side is
Cupid, and at their back a figure holding something in a spread-out
cloth. May not the temple in the background represent the Temple of
Isis and Serapis?