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Drawing 1 (top right): Elaborate Doric capital seen near San Matteo in Merulana
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Reference number
SM volume 115/120a
Purpose
Drawing 1 (top right): Elaborate Doric capital seen near San Matteo in Merulana
Aspect
Cross section and raking view of side, with measurements
Scale
To an approximate scale of 1:11
Inscribed
prope S. matheum. (‘Close to San Matteo’)
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, traces of black chalk and compass pricks
Hand
Bernardo della Volpaia
Notes
This Doric capital has a neck decorated with Lesbian ornament and an echinus embellished with egg-and-dart. The church of San Matteo, specified in the caption as where it was seen, was situated on the Via Merulana on the Esquiline Hill between the Lateran and Santa Maria Maggiore before it was destroyed in the early nineteenth century (Armellini 1942, pp. 304–06).
The capital is also known from a subsequent drawing by Giorgio Vasari the Younger, who depicted it without the surface ornament. It is identical in form, although a little larger in size, to the one here drawn below it (Drawing 3), as well as being depicted in the same manner, a section combined with a view so as to allow a dowel hole (positioned too high up the shaft) to be seen. Either this drawing or the one below it was copied by Michelangelo, although he made it into a frontal representation with decorative embellishments.
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: [Giorgio Vasari the Younger] Florence, GDSU, ‘Porte e finestre’, 4628 Ar
The capital is also known from a subsequent drawing by Giorgio Vasari the Younger, who depicted it without the surface ornament. It is identical in form, although a little larger in size, to the one here drawn below it (Drawing 3), as well as being depicted in the same manner, a section combined with a view so as to allow a dowel hole (positioned too high up the shaft) to be seen. Either this drawing or the one below it was copied by Michelangelo, although he made it into a frontal representation with decorative embellishments.
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: [Giorgio Vasari the Younger] Florence, GDSU, ‘Porte e finestre’, 4628 Ar
Literature
Ashby 1904, p. 60
Census, ID 45848
Census, ID 45848
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