To an approximate scale of 1:230

.IN. CAPVA. VETERA. (‘at Capua Vetere’)

• c.1513/14
  Datable to c.1513/14

Pen and brown ink and grey-brown wash over stylus lines and lines and compass pricks

Bernardo della Volpaia

This enormous mausoleum, dating perhaps from the first century CE, is situated outside the town of Santa Maria Capua Vetere to the north of Naples, the location indicated (in antique-inspired capitals) in the caption, and it was known as the ‘Old Prisons’ (Carceri vecchie) at least as far back as the twelfth century (Rucca 1828, p. 292). As drawn here, its circular exterior is formed of a ring of 28 bays, separated by pilasters, of alternating round and rectangular niches, one of these replaced by the entrance. The cruciform interior has a dome at the crossing and an annular corridor running just inside the perimeter wall, providing access to four small circular spaces between the interior arms. However, the drawing is far from an accurate since, in reality, the exterior bays number 22 not 28 and are separated by half-columns not pilasters, and the niches to the rear are blind, while the cruciform interior, reached by a long passageway, is actually much smaller and is surrounded by a ring of inaccessible earth-filled voids with no annular corridor (see De Franciscis–Pane 1957). Not shown in the drawing is the church later attached to the front of the mausoleum (De Caro–Greco 1981, pp. 211–13), which appears in a drawing by Francesco do Giorgio. Not shown in the drawing is the church attached to the font of the mausoleum (De Caro-Greco 1981, pp. 211-13), which appears in an earlier drawing by Francesco di Giorgio.

Among the other drawings made of the mausoleum during the Renaissance, the earlier sketch plan by Francesco di Giorgio would appear despite its rudimentary style to have been based on an actual site visit. In certain respects, it is more accurate than the Coner drawing, such as in recording the abutting structure at the front – although it mistakenly proposes that the mausoleum had an open upper storey consisting of twelve columns for which no evidence exists. The Coner plan would appear, instead, to be related to drawings from the circle of Giuliano da Sangallo. It is very similar to one in Sangallo’s Taccuino Senese and is even closer to another in his Codex Barberini, which corrects a minor error in the Taccuino Senese that showed the alternation of the external niches as following an irregular pattern (replicated in the Codex Escurialensis). Closest of all, however, is a drawing on parchment from Sangallo’s circle in the Uffizi, which, like the Coner plan, has the pilasters depicted more prominently than in other drawings. Later plans, such those by Giorgio Vasari il Giovane and one at Windsor, tend likewise to follow the pattern established by the drawings from the Sangallo circle. They omit the abutting structure, show the wrong number of exterior bays, and inside have circular spaces on the diagonals, although they make the cross-shaped interior a little less large. A plan by Ligorio modifies this format, correcting the exterior by giving it half-columns rather that pilasters but still making the interior far too large, and introducing new errors such as reducing the number of external bays to sixteen.

The Coner plan is one of three in the codex of centrally planned monuments near Naples (see also Fol. 11v/Ashby 19), which all share the same characteristic of departing from the high standards of observation and accuracy, suggesting they were simply based on other drawings, without the possibility of verifying them against the monuments themselves. Their inclusion in a collection of drawings otherwise limited to Rome and its immediate environs is puzzling. They are clearly not later additions to the codex and they were certainly produced by Bernardo della Volpaia. Moreover, their use of pseudo-antique capitals for their captions is typical of the earlier drawings in the codex, and this one would appear to have been executed at the same time as the plan of Bramante’s Tempietto next to it, since they were drawn with the same pen (the nib width being identical), they have the same tone of wash, and they share the same stylus line that was used as the guide for their respective cross axes.

RELATED IMAGES: [Circle of Giuliano da Sangallo] Florence, GDSU, 2045 Av (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 31; Frommel–Schelbert 2022, p. 213)

OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Francesco di Giorgio] Florence, GDSU, Taccuino del Viaggio, 320 Av (Burns 1993, pp. 333–35); [Giuliano da Sangallo] Siena, BCS, Ms. S.IV.8 (Taccuino Senese) fol. 16v (Borsi 1985, pp. 74–75); [Giuliano da Sangallo] Rome, BAV, Barb. lat. 4424 (Codex Barberini), fol. 8 (Hülsen 1910, 1, pp. 15–16; Borsi 1985, pp. 74–75); [Anon.] El Escorial, Real Monasterio, 28-II-12 (Codex Escurialensis), fol. 74 (Egger 1905–06, p. 162); [Pirro Ligorio] Naples, BNN, Ms. XIII B 10, fol. 94v (Rausa 1997, pp. 97–98); [Anon.] Windsor, RL 10838 (Campbell 2004, 2, pp. 503–04); Giorgio Vasari il Giovane, Florence, GDSU, 4828 Ar (Stefanelli 1970, pp. 218–19)

Ashby 1904, p. 21
Ashby 1913, p. 194
Census, ID 44132

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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