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Folio 37 verso (Ashby 60): Arch of the Argentarii
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Reference number
SM volume 115/60
Purpose
Folio 37 verso (Ashby 60): Arch of the Argentarii
Aspect
Perspectival elevation and raking side view, with measurements
Scale
To an approximate scale of 1:60
Inscribed
[Drawing] 50 [early seventeenth-century hand]
[Inscribed on monument but positioned in drawing beside it] .p. caes. L. setimio. Seuero. pio. pertinaci. augu. a. abica. diabenic. part. max. fortissimo. felicissimo./ pontif. max. trib. potest. XII. imp. XI. cos. III. patri. patriae. et./ imp. caes. m. aurelio. antonino. pio felici. aug. trib. potest. VII. cos. III. p. p. procos. fortissimo. felicissimo quae. principi. et./ iuliae. aug. matri. aug. net. castrorum. et. senatus. et. patriae. et imp. caes. m. aureli. antoninij. pii felici aug/ parthici maximi Brittannici maximi/ argentari. et. neGotiantes. boari(i), iiuivs loci qui LXIV.rent deuoti minimi eorum.
(= CIL, 6, 1035: IMP[ERATORI] CAES[ARI] L[VCIO] SEPTIMIO SEVERO PIO PERTINACI AVG[VSTO] ARABIC[O] ADIABENIC[O] PARTH[ICO] MAX[IMO] FORTISSIMO FELICISSIMO/ PONTIF[ICI] MAX[IMO] TRIB[VNICIA] POTEST[ATE] XII IMP[ERATORI] XI CO[N]S[VLI] III PATRI PATRIAE ET/ IMP[ERATORI] CAES[ARI] M[ARCO] AVRELIO ANTONINO PIO FELICI AVG[VSTO] TRIB[VNICIA] POTEST[ATE] VII CO[N]S[VLI] III P[ATRI] P[ATRIAE] PROCO[N]S[VLI] FORTISSIMO FELICISSIMOQVE PRINCIPI ET/ IVLIAE AVG[VSTAE] MATRI AVG[VSTI] N[OSTRI] ET CASTRORVM ET SENATVS ET PATRIAE ET IMP[ERATORIS] CAES[ARIS] M[ARCI] AVRELI ANTONINI PII FELICIS AVG[VSTI]/ PARTHICI MAXIMI BRIT[T]ANNICI MAXIMI/ ARGENTARI[I] ET NEGOTIANTES BOARI[I] HVIVS LOCI QVI/ INVEHENT/ DEVOTI NUMINI EORVM)
[Mount] 60 [x2]; [in pencil] The ‘Goldsmiths’ Arch’ at Rome.
Signed and dated
- c.1513/14
Datable to c.1513/14
Medium and dimensions
[Drawing] Pen and brown ink and grey-brown wash over stylus lines and compass pricks; on laid paper (165x232mm), inlaid (back to front and rotated clockwise through 90 degrees with respect to original foliation)
[Mount] Frame lines, in pen and dark brown ink, 10mm apart; window (159x224mm)
Hand
Bernardo della Volpaia
Watermark
See recto
Notes
The small but lavishly decorated Arch of the Argentarii, sometimes known incorrectly as the Arch of the Silversmiths, was erected by a body of moneychangers (argentarii) and merchants (negotiantes) in honour of the Emperor Septimius Severus and his family, as the inscription on the richly decorated façade records. It dates from the early third century CE (LTUR 1993–2000, 1, pp. 105–06), and it is located close to the ancient Forum Boarium, south of the Capitoline Hill and near the River Tiber, its right-hand side being walled into the portico and tower of the early medieval church of San Giorgio in Velabro. It is of very unusual design in having a central opening not in the form of an arch but trabeated and with a flat ceiling inside.
The drawing shows the structure’s much-better-preserved southern face. It follows the pattern of others in the album representing arches, in depicting the monument’s front together with perspectival views of its right-hand side and the inside flank of its left-hand pier. In doing so in this case, it prioritises consistency of representation over observational accuracy, seeing that the right side was embedded into the neighbouring church and hidden from view and so its drawn composition could only be surmised from the building’s presumed symmetry. It thus differs from the two previous representations of the monument by Giuliano da Sangallo: the version in his Taccuino Senese is similar in format but provides views of the arch’s visible left-hand side and inside flank of the right-hand pier, while the one in his Codex Barberini excludes the left-hand side but does show the right-hand pier’s inner flank. In most other respects the Coner drawing is consistent with the Barberini rendition in recording the tall plinths at the bottoms of the piers (cf. Desgodetz 1682, p. 217) which were then (and still are) partly buried, and in correctly showing them as being entirely plain rather than as having decorative panels (as in the Codex Barberini but not the Taccuino Senese). It avoids the temptation seen in the Barberini drawing, however, of furnishing the arch with an imagined superstructure, which Sangallo had conceived as panelled attic with crowning pediment.
The drawing is consistent with other elevational drawings in the codex by depicting the monument stripped of its sculptural embellishments, which are notably abundant on this monument, and are recorded in the Codex Barberini drawing. These include the decorations found in panels on the pilaster shafts and encrusting the entablature, and well as the sculpted reliefs positioned between the pilasters both externally and internally and overlaying the entablature at the sides as well. The positions of the reliefs, however, are indicated by the frames of their panels, as is that of the large panel in the middle of the entablature for the inscription, which is similar to those on the Portico of Octavia (Fol. 39r/Ashby 63) and the Temple of Vespasian (Fol. 41r/Ashby 67), while the frames of the pilaster panels are also recorded although only at the left.
It was obviously of some importance to the Coner draughtsman that the six-line façade inscription should be recorded in full, which may explain why the arch was drawn at the bottom of the sheet with space for the inscription left at the top. Its rendition in cursive script is atypical of the codex, albeit not unique (cf. Fols 41v/Ashby 68 and 42r/Ashby 69), and it is set out line by line, although in a couple of instances with the final words inserted at the line ends, which would have been impossible if larger capitals had been used instead. It is transcribed fairy accurately apart from minor slips near the very end, although, as Ashby happened to note, not quite as accurately as in Bernardo Rucellai’s De urbe Roma (Rucellai 1953, p. 450). Since the monument was otherwise unnamed on the drawing, an identifying caption (calling it the ‘Goldsmith’s Arch’) was written on the mount in the nineteenth century.
OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giuliano da Sangallo] Siena, BCS, Ms. S.IV.8 (Taccuino Senese), fol. 22r (Borsi 1985, pp. 177–78); [Giuliano da Sangallo] Rome, BAV, Barb. lat. 4424 (Codex Barberini), fol. 33r (Hülsen 1910, p. 48; Borsi 1985, pp. 174–78)
The drawing shows the structure’s much-better-preserved southern face. It follows the pattern of others in the album representing arches, in depicting the monument’s front together with perspectival views of its right-hand side and the inside flank of its left-hand pier. In doing so in this case, it prioritises consistency of representation over observational accuracy, seeing that the right side was embedded into the neighbouring church and hidden from view and so its drawn composition could only be surmised from the building’s presumed symmetry. It thus differs from the two previous representations of the monument by Giuliano da Sangallo: the version in his Taccuino Senese is similar in format but provides views of the arch’s visible left-hand side and inside flank of the right-hand pier, while the one in his Codex Barberini excludes the left-hand side but does show the right-hand pier’s inner flank. In most other respects the Coner drawing is consistent with the Barberini rendition in recording the tall plinths at the bottoms of the piers (cf. Desgodetz 1682, p. 217) which were then (and still are) partly buried, and in correctly showing them as being entirely plain rather than as having decorative panels (as in the Codex Barberini but not the Taccuino Senese). It avoids the temptation seen in the Barberini drawing, however, of furnishing the arch with an imagined superstructure, which Sangallo had conceived as panelled attic with crowning pediment.
The drawing is consistent with other elevational drawings in the codex by depicting the monument stripped of its sculptural embellishments, which are notably abundant on this monument, and are recorded in the Codex Barberini drawing. These include the decorations found in panels on the pilaster shafts and encrusting the entablature, and well as the sculpted reliefs positioned between the pilasters both externally and internally and overlaying the entablature at the sides as well. The positions of the reliefs, however, are indicated by the frames of their panels, as is that of the large panel in the middle of the entablature for the inscription, which is similar to those on the Portico of Octavia (Fol. 39r/Ashby 63) and the Temple of Vespasian (Fol. 41r/Ashby 67), while the frames of the pilaster panels are also recorded although only at the left.
It was obviously of some importance to the Coner draughtsman that the six-line façade inscription should be recorded in full, which may explain why the arch was drawn at the bottom of the sheet with space for the inscription left at the top. Its rendition in cursive script is atypical of the codex, albeit not unique (cf. Fols 41v/Ashby 68 and 42r/Ashby 69), and it is set out line by line, although in a couple of instances with the final words inserted at the line ends, which would have been impossible if larger capitals had been used instead. It is transcribed fairy accurately apart from minor slips near the very end, although, as Ashby happened to note, not quite as accurately as in Bernardo Rucellai’s De urbe Roma (Rucellai 1953, p. 450). Since the monument was otherwise unnamed on the drawing, an identifying caption (calling it the ‘Goldsmith’s Arch’) was written on the mount in the nineteenth century.
OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giuliano da Sangallo] Siena, BCS, Ms. S.IV.8 (Taccuino Senese), fol. 22r (Borsi 1985, pp. 177–78); [Giuliano da Sangallo] Rome, BAV, Barb. lat. 4424 (Codex Barberini), fol. 33r (Hülsen 1910, p. 48; Borsi 1985, pp. 174–78)
Literature
Ashby 1904, p. 36
Census, ID 44607
Census, ID 44607
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