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Drawing 2 (top right): Impost from the Arch of Septimius Severus
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Reference number
SM volume 115/95b
Purpose
Drawing 2 (top right): Impost from the Arch of Septimius Severus
Aspect
Orthogonal view of a corner
Scale
To an approximate scale of 1:11
Signed and dated
- c.1515
Datable to c.1515
Medium and dimensions
Pen and brown ink over black chalk
Hand
Bernardo della Volpaia
Notes
The drawing records the impost of the transverse internal archway of the Arch of Septimius Severus, and it does so with great precision (cf. Desgodetz 1682, p. 115). At the bottom, it shows the top of the supporting wall with its flare, fillet and roll-moulding and, above these unadorned elements, comes a frieze decorated with acanthus swirls with a bearded protome at the corner, which, in turn, is capped with a cyma embellished with acanthus fronds and buds, and a cavetto at the top with further acanthus ornamentation. It is far more detailed and accurate that the earlier depiction of the same moulding in Giuliano da Sangallo’s Codex Barberini, and in some respects more accurate than the later measured drawings of it in Berlin and Vienna, which omit the corner protome. Another of the arch’s imposts, from the side archways of the façade, is recorded in a later drawing (Fol. 64v/Ashby 110).
The drawing differs markedly in its handling from many others in the album, in particular in being executed over detailed black chalk preparatory work, and in its emphasis on recording sculpted detail. This difference in treatment, together with the more haphazard-than-usual distribution of the drawings across the sheet, suggests that the drawing was made during the second phase of the compilation’s execution.
OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giuliano da Sangallo] Rome, BAV, Barb. lat. 4424 (Codex Barberini), fol. 22r (Hülsen 1910, p. 31; Borsi 1985, pp. 129– 32); [Anon.] Berlin, Kunstbibliothek, HdZ 4151, fol. 56v; [Anon. French draughtsman] Vienna, Albertina, inv. Egger no. 43v (Egger 1903, p. 23)
OTHER DRAWINGS IN CODEX CONER OF SAME SUBJECT: Fol. 34r/Ashby 54; Fol. 64v/Ashby 110; Fol. 89r/Ashby 147
The drawing differs markedly in its handling from many others in the album, in particular in being executed over detailed black chalk preparatory work, and in its emphasis on recording sculpted detail. This difference in treatment, together with the more haphazard-than-usual distribution of the drawings across the sheet, suggests that the drawing was made during the second phase of the compilation’s execution.
OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giuliano da Sangallo] Rome, BAV, Barb. lat. 4424 (Codex Barberini), fol. 22r (Hülsen 1910, p. 31; Borsi 1985, pp. 129– 32); [Anon.] Berlin, Kunstbibliothek, HdZ 4151, fol. 56v; [Anon. French draughtsman] Vienna, Albertina, inv. Egger no. 43v (Egger 1903, p. 23)
OTHER DRAWINGS IN CODEX CONER OF SAME SUBJECT: Fol. 34r/Ashby 54; Fol. 64v/Ashby 110; Fol. 89r/Ashby 147
Literature
Ashby 1904, p. 48
Census, ID 45637
Census, ID 45637
Level
Drawing
Digitisation of the Codex Coner has been made possible through the generosity of the Census of Antique Works of Art and Architecture Known in the Renaissance, Berlin.
If you have any further information about this object, please contact us: drawings@soane.org.uk