The original model of the famous marble boat placed in the gardens of the Villa Mattei, Rome, by Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici in the late 17th. century. The Navicella, of travertine marble and almost eight feet long, was discovered near the Villa Celimontana in the early 16th. century and may originally have been an ex-voto offering for a safe voyage.
The moneris galley-ship is carved with the Jugum slave-yoke, symbolic of the conquered nations, on tablets behind the boar-headed rostrum prow. An engraving of a related model was illustrated by G. B. Piranesi, Vasi, Candelabri Cippi, Sarcophagi, 1778, F714 and was dedicated to Margherita Earle.