To an approximate scale of 1:16

ad. S. praxedem. (‘At Santa Prassede’); [measurements]

• c.1513/14
  Datable to c.1513/14

Pen and brown ink and grey-brown wash

Bernardo della Volpaia

The monolithic shaft depicted here could be one of those now visible (having previously been walled up) in the atrium of Santa Prassede, which are of around the same height (Krautheimer 1937–77, 3, pp. 240–43; Pensabene 2015, pp. 402–29). What was presumably the same shaft from Santa Prassede was also drawn, likewise with many accompanying measurements, by Giuliano da Sangallo and his nephew Giovanni Francesco, which testifies to the careful attention being given to column profiles at around this time. These drawings, however, were all produced independently of each other. In the Coner drawing, the height is given as 6 braccia and 6 minutes (around 3.6m), and the shaft diameter above the flare at the base is put at 41⅗ minutes, diminishing to 36⅔ minutes near the top and with a further nine measurements in between. In Giuliano’s ‘precisely measured’ (misurata apunto) depiction, the height is put at 6 braccia and 2 ‘minutes’ – in accordance with a larger minute size of twenty per braccia – and the diameter measurements, which are far more numerous, range from just over 14 to just over 12 minutes; and, in Giovanni Francesco’s, the height is 6 braccia and 3 minutes (there being again 60 minutes to a braccia), and the diameters range from 39¾ minutes to 35½ minutes, with another thirteen measurements in between. Just as the measurements of the Coner drawing differ from these two drawings so does the depiction being in perspective rather than orthogonal projection, but it is like them in grouping the column with other monolithic shafts.

It is difficult to imagine why anyone would want to copy this drawing, but Michelangelo for some unknown reason did so.

RELATED IMAGES: [Michelangelo], CB, 1Av: left side (De Tolnay 1975–80, 4, p. 49; Agosti–Farinella 1987, pp. 88–89)

OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giuliano da Sangallo] Rome, BAV, Barb. lat. 4424 (Codex Barberini), fol. 70r (Hülsen 1910, p. 72; Borsi 1985, pp. 239–43); [Giovanni Francesco da Sangallo] Florence, GDSU, 1327 Ar (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 103 Frommel–Schelbert 2022, 1, pp. 166–67)

Ashby 1904, p. 39
Census, ID 44820

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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