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  • image SM volume 115/115e

Reference number

SM volume 115/115e

Purpose

Drawing 5 (bottom left): Impost from the Theatre of Marcellus’s upper storey

Aspect

Cross section and axonometric raking view of front, with measurements

Scale

To an approximate scale of 1:9

Inscribed

S. suello[rum] (‘Of the Signori Savelli’); [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 caption locates the impost at the house of the Savelli, the name by which the Theatre of Marcellus was then known, having been transformed by that family into a residence. The drawing shows the impost of the upper-storey arches (cf. Desgodetz 1682, p. 299). It is identical in its sequence of mouldings to a depiction in the Codex Mellon, although this shows the impost in orthogonal elevation, and to another by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger which is also orthogonal. Other early drawings in the Codex Strozzi and the Fossombrone Sketchbook and one by Giovanni Battista da Sangallo vary slightly in the detailing at the junction of the neck and ovolo moulding, showing alternatives to the continuous bead between them seen here.

OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Anon.] Florence, GDSU, Codex Strozzi, 1602 Av (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 29); [Domenico Aimo (Il Varignana), attr.] New York, Morgan Library, Codex Mellon, fol. 12r; [Anon.] Fossombrone, Bibl. Civ. Passionei, Dis. Vol. 3 (Fossombrone Sketchbook) fol. 2v (Nesselrath 1993, pp. 78–82); [Antonio da Sangallo the Younger] Florence, GDSU, 1660 Av (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 80; Frommel–Schelbert 2022, 1, p. 200); [Giovanni Battista da Sangallo] Florence, GDSU, 1966 Ar (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 97; Frommel–Schelbert 2022, 1, p. 211)

OTHER DRAWINGS IN CODEX CONER OF SAME SUBJECT: Fol. 26v/Ashby 42; Fol. 45v/Ashby 76; Fol. 54r/Ashby 93; Fol. 72r/Ashby 122

Literature

Ashby 1904, p. 56
Census, ID 45778

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.

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