Explore Collections
You are here:
CollectionsOnline
/
Drawing 11 (bottom right): Cornice from the Septizodium
Browse
Reference number
SM volume 115/116k
Purpose
Drawing 11 (bottom right): Cornice from the Septizodium
Aspect
Cross section and axonometric raking view of front, with measurements
Scale
To an approximate scale of 1:10
Inscribed
Setizonij. (‘Of the Septizodium’); [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 annotation establishes that this unusual cornice, which has two roll mouldings of different sizes above the corona, belonged to the then-surviving remains of the Septizodium, a monumental structure once on the southeast corner of the Palatine Palace. This identification along with the cornice’s particular composition led Ashby to conclude, correctly, that it was part of the building’s podium. As represented in the Coner drawing, the cornice, which was then mostly buried, is very different from the one depicted in a drawing of the monument by Giuliano da Sangallo in his Codex Barberini. Representations of the same detail in other early sixteenth-century drawings, however, are broadly similar in composition, except that these mostly differ in their treatments of the larger moulding above the corona. One formerly attributed to Fra’ Giocondo shows it as a cyma while others by Cronaca and from the circle of Antonio Labacco represent it as an ovolo. In early sixteenth-century Codex Strozzi it is shown as a roll moulding, just as in the Codex Coner. The drawing’s profile was copied by Michelangelo.
There are no other drawings of the Septizodium by Bernardo della Volpaia in the Codex Coner, although a conjectural plan was added to the compilation by a seventeenth-century draughtsman.
RELATED IMAGES: [Michelangelo] Florence, CB, 1Av: right side (De Tolnay 1975–80, 4, p. 49; Agosti–Farinella 1987, pp. 90–91)
OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giuliano da Sangallo] Rome, BAV, Barb. lat. 4424 (Codex Barberini), fol. 30r (Hülsen 1910, p. 45; Borsi 1985, pp. 157–63); [Il Cronaca] Montreal, CCA, Cronaca Sketchbook, fol. 7r (Günther 1988; p. 332 and pl. 7); [Anon.] Florence, GDSU, Codex Strozzi, 1599 Ar (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 29); [‘Pseudo-Giocondo’] Florence, GDSU, 1540 Av (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 20); [Circle of Antonio Labacco] Cambridge (Mass.), Fogg Museum inv. 1932.271, fol. 10r (Burns 1984, p. 414)
OTHER DRAWINGS IN CODEX CONER OF SAME SUBJECT: Fol. 4v/Ashby 7
There are no other drawings of the Septizodium by Bernardo della Volpaia in the Codex Coner, although a conjectural plan was added to the compilation by a seventeenth-century draughtsman.
RELATED IMAGES: [Michelangelo] Florence, CB, 1Av: right side (De Tolnay 1975–80, 4, p. 49; Agosti–Farinella 1987, pp. 90–91)
OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giuliano da Sangallo] Rome, BAV, Barb. lat. 4424 (Codex Barberini), fol. 30r (Hülsen 1910, p. 45; Borsi 1985, pp. 157–63); [Il Cronaca] Montreal, CCA, Cronaca Sketchbook, fol. 7r (Günther 1988; p. 332 and pl. 7); [Anon.] Florence, GDSU, Codex Strozzi, 1599 Ar (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 29); [‘Pseudo-Giocondo’] Florence, GDSU, 1540 Av (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 20); [Circle of Antonio Labacco] Cambridge (Mass.), Fogg Museum inv. 1932.271, fol. 10r (Burns 1984, p. 414)
OTHER DRAWINGS IN CODEX CONER OF SAME SUBJECT: Fol. 4v/Ashby 7
Literature
Ashby 1904, p. 57
Census, ID 45608
Census, ID 45608
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