To an approximate scale of 1:6

Penes. montem. Equuo[rum]. (‘On Monte Cavallo’); [measurements]

• c.1513/14
  Datable to c.1513/14

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

Bernardo della Volpaia

This elaborate Doric pilaster capital is described in the caption as being near ‘Monte Cavallo’ the name given to that part of the Quirinal Hill where the prominent statues of the Horse Tamers were to be found. This would accord with the location given on a drawing of an identical capital in Saint Petersburg that locates it in Piazza Sciarra (A piaccia di Sciara), a square at the foot of the Quirinal. At an early date, the capital was evidently known to the painter Filippo Lippi who used the design for the painted pilasters separating the scenes of his frescoes in Spoleto Cathedral (1467–69). It was subsequently depicted in the Codex Escurialensis and Codex Barberini and in drawings in Harvard and Berlin. A further drawing in Chatsworth dating from around 1519 is annotated with measurements that broadly agree, numerically, with those on the Coner depiction. It has been suggested that the capital was actually an impost (Burns 1984, p. 413) based on a rather more refined drawing in the Fogg Museum; but Ashby (1913) reported seeing one of the same design, in giallo antico marble, at a property belonging to the Borghese family that formed part of the abbey of Fossanova 100km southeast of Rome.

Unlike the other capitals on the page, this one is represented almost completely as an orthogonal projection, the only departure being the slice through the pilaster’s shaft which is shown in perspective. The drawing was copied by Michelangelo, who omitted the section through the shaft.

RELATED IMAGES: [Michelangelo] London, BM, 1859-6-25-560/1v (De Tolnay 1975–80, 4, pp. 47–48; Agosti–Farinella 1987, pp. 94–95)

OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giuliano da Sangallo] Rome, BAV, Barb. lat. 4424 (Codex Barberini), fol. 14v (Hülsen 1910, p. 25; Borsi 1985, pp. 101–04); [Anon.] El Escorial, Real Monasterio, 28-II-12 (Codex Escurialensis), fol. 62r (Egger 1905–06, p. 153); [Anon.] Berlin, Kunstbibliothek, OZ 111, fol. 7r (Römische Skizzen 1988, pp. 149–150); [Anon.] Saint Petersburg, Hermitage, Codex Destailleur B, fol. 99r (Lanzarini–Martinis 2015, pp. 150– 51); [Anonymous Italian C of 1519] Chatsworth, Devonshire Collection, Album 32, fol. 5r (Günther 1988, p. 342 and pl. 46a); [Circle of Antonio Labacco] Cambridge (Mass.), Fogg Museum, inv. 1932.271, fol. 8v (Burns 1984, p. 413)

Ashby 1904, p. 59
Ashby 1913, p. 208
Census, ID 45824

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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