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  • image SM volume 115/115d
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Reference number

SM volume 115/115d

Purpose

Drawing 4 (centre right): Cornice seen at Palazzo Castellesi (Giraud-Torlonia)

Aspect

Cross section and axonometric raking view of front, with measurements

Scale

To an approximate scale of 1:8

Inscribed

in. [a]ede. C [ardinalis]. adriani. (‘In the house of Cardinal Adriano’); [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

This cornice, as the caption makes clear, was seen at the palace of Cardinal Adriano Castellesi, the building now known as Palazzo Giraud-Torlonia (see Cat. Fol. 8v/Ashby 14). Ashby noted that it did not correspond to any comparable element from this modern building, and in this he was correct, although the cornice of the piano nobile of the palace’s façade is similar, apart from having an ovolo rather than a cyma directly beneath the corona (cf. Letarouilly 1984, pl. 147). It is important to note, however, that the palace was partly constructed from ancient materials, some obtained from close to Porta Maggiore and some from the Basilica Aemilia (see entries for Fols 8v/Ashby 14 and 46r/Ashby 77), so it may be that this fragment – if it is indeed ancient – had been transported to the site for just such a purpose.

Literature

Ashby 1904, p. 56
Günther 1988, p. 338
Census, ID 45777

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

Sir John Soane's collection includes some 30,000 architectural, design and topographical drawings which is a very important resource for scholars worldwide. His was the first architect’s collection to attempt to preserve the best in design for the architectural profession in the future, and it did so by assembling as exemplars surviving drawings by great Renaissance masters and by the leading architects in Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries and his near contemporaries such as Sir William Chambers, Robert Adam and George Dance the Younger. These drawings sit side by side with 9,000 drawings in Soane’s own hand or those of the pupils in his office, covering his early work as a student, his time in Italy and the drawings produced in the course of his architectural practice from 1780 until the 1830s.


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