To an approximate scale of 1:170

[letter key] .A.; [measurements]

• c.1513/14
  Datable to c.1513/14

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

Bernardo della Volpaia

This plan detail is of Bramante’s celebrated spiral staircase, which was begun by 1512 although perhaps proposed around 1507 (Denker Nesselrath 1996, pp. 13–16). It corrects the inaccurate axial positioning of the internal columns shown on the master plan (Drawing 1), but it does not fully convey the design’s remarkable ingenuity. The columns number eight per circuit but they are stacked up in over four full storeys, with a different order for each (Tuscan, Doric, Ionic and then Composite), and with shafts of accordingly diminishing diameter, as is recorded in a section in Rome produced in the 1520s (see Denker Nesselrath 1996, p. 26). The staircase has rectangular apertures on the main axes and semi-circular niches on the diagonals perhaps intended for statuary. Although usually described as a ‘staircase’ – and shown as such in the Coner drawing – the ascent is actually in the form of a ramp for access by horse or mule.

OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Anon.] Rome, ICG, Vol. 2510, fol. 79v (Günther 1988, p. 352 and pl. 77a)

OTHER DRAWINGS IN CODEX CONER OF SAME SUBJECT: see Drawing 1

Ashby 1904, pp. 23–26
Ashby 1913, pp. 197–200
Ackerman 1954, pp. 193–95
Denker Nesselrath 1996, p. 25

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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