To an approximate scale of 1:12

.C[orona]. S[uperior]. teatri. (‘Upper cornice of the theatre’); [measurements]

• 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 of the Theatre of Marcellus’s Ionic entablature, which is identified by its caption, is unlike that of the Doric order of that building (Fol. 45v/Ashby 76) in omitting the capital, and nor is the capital featured elsewhere in the codex – a curious omission considering that it was so well-studied by architects of the period and was one of the chief prototypes for their own Ionic capitals. The oblique view of part of the entablature’s front is, in this instance, notably short and includes just three dentils. The entablature may have already been in woeful condition (see e.g. Desgodetz 1682, p. 299) but several early drawings of it survive, which include one in the Codex Strozzi and others by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and the Anonymous Italian C of 1519, although these all show it orthogonally and accompanied by the capital. An illustration, however, in the fourth book (1537) of Sebastiano Serlio’s treatise and a drawing by Andrea Palladio copied from an earlier source, both of which depict the entablature again alone, show it in an almost identical format with likewise just three dentils; but there are minor differences, such as the Coner drawing representing the crowning cyma as not being flat on top and the corona’s soffit as being without a lip at the back. The similarities are such as to suggest, however, that the depictions probably go back to a common prototype.

Even though the top-left corner of the crowning cyma runs off the edge of the page, the drawing was probably the first to be executed on the sheet, seeing that the adjacent drawing remains unfinished in the areas where it would have encroached on this one. A simplified copy of the drawing was made by Michelangelo.

RELATED IMAGES: [Michelangelo] London, BM, 1859-6-25-560/2r (De Tolnay 1975–80, 4, p. 45; Agosti–Farinella 1987, pp. 98–99); Serlio 1619, 3, fol. 162r; [Andrea Palladio] London, RIBA, Palladio 10, 20r (Zorzi 1958, p. 92)

OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Anon.] Florence, GDSU, Codex Strozzi, 1602 Ar (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 29); [Anonymous Italian C of 1519] Vienna, Albertina, Egger no. 10v (Egger 1903, p. 18; Valori 1985, pp. 109–11; Günther 1988; p. 340 and pl. 33b); [Antonio da Sangallo the Younger] Florence, GDSU, 932 Ar (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 62; Frommel–Schelbert 2022, 1, p. 79)

OTHER DRAWINGS IN CODEX CONER OF SAME SUBJECT: Fol. 26v/Ashby 42; Fol. 45v/Ashby 76; Fol. 67r/Ashby 115; Fol. 72r/Ashby 122

Ashby 1904, p. 47
Census, ID 45376

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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