Unknown

• c.1513/14
  Datable to c.1513/14

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

Bernardo della Volpaia

This drawing is mostly executed on the carefully profiled replacement patch on the recto, the result of a probable mistake being made when the recto drawing was being produced (Fol. 43r/Ashby 71 Drawing 1). It was executed after the patch was added since the receding lines at the top run over both the patch and the original sheet. Unlike the other drawing on this page it was left unfinished, as is clear from the absence of both a concluding profile on the left edge and the use of wash.

The entablature has not been identified, but it is certainly a Doric one, not only because the drawing is positioned in a run of Doric entablatures but also because one of the guttae associated with a Doric triglyph is drawn in profile in the top fascia of the architrave. Despite the guttae, however, it may not have had triglyphs because the cornice mouldings above the frieze do not project far enough forward to allow their inclusion. There are no dimensions provided but judging from the cornice’s complexity the entablature belonged to a relatively large order. The slanted corona would suggest that it was ancient rather than modern.

The entablature’s profile was copied by Michelangelo.

RELATED IMAGES: [Michelangelo] Florence, CB 3Av: left side (De Tolnay 1975–80, 4, p. 50; Agosti–Farinella 1987, pp. 120–21)

Ashby 1904, p. 4
Census, ID 44996

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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