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Drawing 1: So-called Temple of Portunus at Porto
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Reference number
SM volume 115/12a
Purpose
Drawing 1: So-called Temple of Portunus at Porto
Aspect
Plan, with measurements
Scale
To an approximate scale of 1:190
Inscribed
[Measurements]
Signed and dated
- c.1513/14
Datable to c.1513/14
Medium and dimensions
Pen and brown ink and grey-brown wash over stylus lines and compass pricks
Hand
Bernardo della Volpaia
Notes
The identity of the circular building in this drawing – the so-called ‘Temple of Portunus’ at Porto – was established by Ashby in 1913. The building stands half a kilometre east of the emperor Trajan’s hexagonal harbour at Porto, and to the north of the ancient city of Ostia (which was little known in the Renaissance). Dating from the second century CE, it may well have been an ancient mausoleum rather than a temple; and, as established by modern surveys and reconstructions (Testaguzza 1970, p. 217), it had a circular cella with eight internal niches set into the thickness of the wall, alternately square and round, and eight engaged columns between them supporting the ribs of a dome, while the cella was then surrounded by a peripteros of 24 columns carrying a vaulted ceiling. All that now survives are just two bays of the cella wall.
The Coner plan generally conforms with modern reconstructions in comprising a cella with internal niches and columns and a surrounding peripteros. The cella as drawn, however, is not identical to that of the ancient structure in that it is shown with four openings on the principal axes whereas evidence survives for just one, and with the sides of the rectangular niches on the main axes as splayed (converging at the thresholds of the doors opposite) rather than parallel. The perimeter, probably already destroyed when the drawing was made, departs from modern reconstructions even more significantly. Instead of a circuit of 24 columns, it is set out with eight very wide piers (four shown), each with a large, applied pilaster on the front, which are interspersed with pairs of smaller columns between framing pilasters. One of the piers (at the right) indicates an alternative articulation in having a niche set into its inner face corresponding to an identically sized niche recessed into the cella wall opposite. The peripteros in the drawing is then ringed by two steps rather than standing on a podium as it did originally.
The Coner drawing postdates the depiction of the building in Giuliano da Sangallo’s Codex Barberini, which shows the access into the cella more correctly via a single door but depicts no peripteros at all. A later drawing by Baldassare Peruzzi from around 1519, and another by Antonio da Sangallo from the 1530s, are yet more accurate in showing the perimeter now as a ring of columns and, in the case of the Peruzzi drawing, noting their number correctly and showing them standing on a podium rather than a double ring of steps. How the articulation seen in the Coner drawing was arrived at is unclear. In combining piers and column pairs it accords with the arrangement seen in the probable scheme for a villa (Fol. 6r/Ashby 10), but it may indicate a connection with Bramante, who used a very similar composition of piers, columns and pilasters for the third level of the Cortile del Belvedere (see Fol. 27r/Ashby 43). Also unclear are the reasons for including such a speculative reconstruction in the codex, anomalous in the context of all the other early drawings in it, and for the building being featured at such an early point; but it could be that the Coner drawing records a reconstruction that had attracted particular attention at the time.
OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giuliano da Sangallo] Rome, BAV, Barb. lat. 4424 (Codex Barberini), fol. 37r (Hülsen 1910, 1, p. 54; Borsi 1985, pp. 194–96); [Baldassare Peruzzi] Florence, GDSU, 539 Ar (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 51; Wurm 1984, pl. 103); [Antonio da Sangallo the Younger] Florence, GDSU, 1414 Ar (Vasori 1981, pp. 153–55; Frommel–Schelbert 2022, pp. 185–86)
OTHER DRAWINGS IN CODEX CONER OF SAME SUBJECT: Fol. 7v/Ashby 12 (Drawing 2 on this page); Fol. 24r/Ashby 37
The Coner plan generally conforms with modern reconstructions in comprising a cella with internal niches and columns and a surrounding peripteros. The cella as drawn, however, is not identical to that of the ancient structure in that it is shown with four openings on the principal axes whereas evidence survives for just one, and with the sides of the rectangular niches on the main axes as splayed (converging at the thresholds of the doors opposite) rather than parallel. The perimeter, probably already destroyed when the drawing was made, departs from modern reconstructions even more significantly. Instead of a circuit of 24 columns, it is set out with eight very wide piers (four shown), each with a large, applied pilaster on the front, which are interspersed with pairs of smaller columns between framing pilasters. One of the piers (at the right) indicates an alternative articulation in having a niche set into its inner face corresponding to an identically sized niche recessed into the cella wall opposite. The peripteros in the drawing is then ringed by two steps rather than standing on a podium as it did originally.
The Coner drawing postdates the depiction of the building in Giuliano da Sangallo’s Codex Barberini, which shows the access into the cella more correctly via a single door but depicts no peripteros at all. A later drawing by Baldassare Peruzzi from around 1519, and another by Antonio da Sangallo from the 1530s, are yet more accurate in showing the perimeter now as a ring of columns and, in the case of the Peruzzi drawing, noting their number correctly and showing them standing on a podium rather than a double ring of steps. How the articulation seen in the Coner drawing was arrived at is unclear. In combining piers and column pairs it accords with the arrangement seen in the probable scheme for a villa (Fol. 6r/Ashby 10), but it may indicate a connection with Bramante, who used a very similar composition of piers, columns and pilasters for the third level of the Cortile del Belvedere (see Fol. 27r/Ashby 43). Also unclear are the reasons for including such a speculative reconstruction in the codex, anomalous in the context of all the other early drawings in it, and for the building being featured at such an early point; but it could be that the Coner drawing records a reconstruction that had attracted particular attention at the time.
OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giuliano da Sangallo] Rome, BAV, Barb. lat. 4424 (Codex Barberini), fol. 37r (Hülsen 1910, 1, p. 54; Borsi 1985, pp. 194–96); [Baldassare Peruzzi] Florence, GDSU, 539 Ar (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 51; Wurm 1984, pl. 103); [Antonio da Sangallo the Younger] Florence, GDSU, 1414 Ar (Vasori 1981, pp. 153–55; Frommel–Schelbert 2022, pp. 185–86)
OTHER DRAWINGS IN CODEX CONER OF SAME SUBJECT: Fol. 7v/Ashby 12 (Drawing 2 on this page); Fol. 24r/Ashby 37
Literature
Ashby 1904, p. 15
Ashby 1913, p. 191
Census, ID 44025
Ashby 1913, p. 191
Census, ID 44025
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