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Folio 28 verso (Ashby 46): Cortile del Belvedere, the Vatican Palace (bottom terrace)
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Reference number
SM volume 115/46
Purpose
Folio 28 verso (Ashby 46): Cortile del Belvedere, the Vatican Palace (bottom terrace)
Aspect
Orthogonal cross section
Scale
To an approximate scale of 1:120
Inscribed
[Mount] 46 [x2]
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 (262x169mm), stitching holes along right edge, rounded corner at bottom left, inlaid
[Mount] Frame lines, in pen and dark brown ink, 10mm apart; window (224x160mm)
Hand
Bernardo della Volpaia
Watermark
See recto
Notes
This section is through the superimposed corridors that flanked the Cortile del Belvedere’s lowermost terrace, and it appears to be unfinished. Although it shows the ground-storey corridor with its vault complete, it omits the floor and vault of the one above, and leaves out the top one entirely, but it records the design of the façade fairly accurately, indicating for example that the entablature of the Ionic order, unlike the one below, is mostly set back a little in each bay but with the corona continuing uninterruptedly (seen also on Fol. 27r/Ashby 43), a design feature that reappears on the top terrace (see Fol. 27v/Ashby 44).
The section corresponds closely with the orthogonal elevation of the Cortile’s lower terrace on the sheet’s other side (Fol. 28r/Ashby 45), the storey and pilaster heights matching precisely, suggesting that the two were conceived as a pair that was separate from the elevation’s perspectival rendition (Fol. 27r/Ashby 43), which has far squatter proportions. As with most of the elevational depictions in the codex, however, the section is drawn by eye rather than to scale. It is also one of only two sections in the compendium to be completely orthogonal, the second being of the Colosseum (Fol. 26r/Ashby 41), which are different from others that are mainly orthogonal but include small perspectival details, such as those of Santa Costanza and the Pantheon (Fols 12r/Ashby 20 and 24v/Ashby 38).
OTHER DRAWINGS IN CODEX CONER OF SAME SUBJECT: Fol.15r/Ashby 25; Fol. 27r/Ashby 43; Fol. 27v/Ashby 44; Fol. 28r/Ashby 45; Fol. 46v/Ashby 78; Fol. 53v/Ashby 92; Fol. 54r/Ashby 93; Fol. 68r/Ashby 116; Fol. 69r/Ashby 117; Fol. 72r/Ashby 122
The section corresponds closely with the orthogonal elevation of the Cortile’s lower terrace on the sheet’s other side (Fol. 28r/Ashby 45), the storey and pilaster heights matching precisely, suggesting that the two were conceived as a pair that was separate from the elevation’s perspectival rendition (Fol. 27r/Ashby 43), which has far squatter proportions. As with most of the elevational depictions in the codex, however, the section is drawn by eye rather than to scale. It is also one of only two sections in the compendium to be completely orthogonal, the second being of the Colosseum (Fol. 26r/Ashby 41), which are different from others that are mainly orthogonal but include small perspectival details, such as those of Santa Costanza and the Pantheon (Fols 12r/Ashby 20 and 24v/Ashby 38).
OTHER DRAWINGS IN CODEX CONER OF SAME SUBJECT: Fol.15r/Ashby 25; Fol. 27r/Ashby 43; Fol. 27v/Ashby 44; Fol. 28r/Ashby 45; Fol. 46v/Ashby 78; Fol. 53v/Ashby 92; Fol. 54r/Ashby 93; Fol. 68r/Ashby 116; Fol. 69r/Ashby 117; Fol. 72r/Ashby 122
Literature
Ashby 1904, p. 32
Ackerman 1954, p. 196
Ackerman 1954, p. 196
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