To an approximate scale of 1:30

porta. tenpli. de. tibure (‘Door of the temple of Tivoli’); [measurements]

• c.1513/14
  Datable to c.1513/14

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

Bernardo della Volpaia

The drawing shows half the temple’s portal, giving measurements for the height and width of the opening and for the architrave, frieze and cornice. Its primary function seems to have been the indication of size, as the architrave’s mouldings are not indicated at all and the only the cornice’s profile is depicted. The measurements are reasonably accurate, the width of the door being given as 4 braccia 6 minutes at the bottom, equivalent to 2.39m and close to the actual measurement of 2.375m (Wilson Jones 1989, p. 146), although, oddly, while they clearly indicate that the door tapers towards the top, this feature is not actually represented in the drawing. The cornice’s profile corresponds in most respects with what survives (Desgodetz 1682, p. 93), although erosion damage makes the mouldings rather difficult to read.

The drawing is similar, in its limited treatment of mouldings, to that of the external frame (right side) of the window depicted next to it (Drawing 1). At first sight, it appears, to be a copy of the one by Giuliano (or Francesco) da Sangallo in the Codex Barberini, although this records the whole door. They both omit the mouldings except for showing the profile of the cornice, but the measurements do not correspond exactly. For example, the cornice in the Coner drawing is given as 38 minutes high, whereas in the Codex Barberini it is put as 13 soldi, the equivalent of 39 minutes, a discrepancy indicating that the Coner measurements were based on a different survey. The cornice profiles are also different, the one shown in the Coner drawing being much closer to more accurate later representations, which suggests that the Sangallo depiction may have served as a base model that was then improved upon for the Coner version.

The drawing was copied by Michelangelo who completed the right-hand half.

RELATED IMAGES: [Francesco or Giuliano da Sangallo] Rome, BAV, Barb. lat. 4424 (Codex Barberini), fol. 42v (Hülsen 1910, 1, p. 58; Borsi 1985, pp. 211–13); Michelangelo: Florence, CB, 8Ar: left side (De Tolnay 1975–80, 4, p. 46; Agosti–Farinella 1987, pp. 104–05).

OTHER DRAWINGS IN CODEX CONER OF SAME SUBJECT: Fol. 14v/Ashby 24; Fol. 20r/Ashby 3 (Drawing 1 on this folio); Fol. 53v/Ashby 92

Ashby 1904, pp. 28–29
Census, ID 47994

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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