Frieze and Sculptures
Filarete's 15th century reconstruction of the tomb on the bronze door of St. Peter (lower right corner of the panel) includes a frieze of garlands and bulls' heads on the square base and on the drum. On the corners of the square base are pilasters with decorated capital.1
Elaborate patterns decorated the exterior of the building and the capital of pilasters.
Bronze peacocks origianally decorated the square base. They symbolize eternal life.2
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1 Mary T. Boatwright, Hadrian and the City of Rome (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1987), 170.
2 Thorsten Opper, Hadrian: Empire and Conflict (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2008).