To an approximate scale of 1:6

in. S. petro. (‘In St Peter’s’); [measurements]

• c.1513/14
  Datable to c.1513/14

Pen and brown ink and grey-brown wash over stylus lines

Bernardo della Volpaia

The annotation specifies that this cornice was to the found in ‘San Petro’, which was taken by Ashby, reasonably enough, to refer to Old St Peter’s. Although there are no other known drawings of it, he noted its similarity with the cornice above the nave columns of the church (referring to Geymüller 1875, p. 325 and pl. 24) but recognised that the Coner cornice was smaller, as indeed it is, since it measures only around 30cm in height. However, another possibility is that the Coner drawing records a different cornice. One with the same unusual modillions of reversed shape is recorded in the slightly later Codex Mellon, which is labelled a sa[n] piero in vi[n]cola (‘at San Pietro in Vincoli’), and raises the possibility that the cornice was in the less famous of the two churches dedicated to the prince of the apostles. The Coner cornice, however, is not quite the same as this other one in that the modillions have a vertical groove along their centres rather than, as in the Mellon cornice, inset rectangular panels. The drawing may have been included on this sheet because of its general similarity to the entablature shown next to it, even despite the modillions being different. It was copied in part by Michelangelo.

RELATED IMAGES: [Michelangelo], CB 3Ar: left side (De Tolnay 1975–80, 4, p. 50; Agosti–Farinella 1987, pp. 116–17)

OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Domenico Aima (il Varignana), attr.] New York, Morgan Library, Codex Mellon, fol. 32r

Ashby 1904, p. 46
Census, ID 45219

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.

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