Scale
To an approximate scale of 1:8
Inscribed
rep [er]to. apud. S. maria [m]. libera. nos. penis. inferni. (‘Discovered near Santa Maria libera nos [a] penis inferni’)
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
As Ashby realised, the name Santa Maria libera nos a penis inferni (‘liberate us from the torments of hell’) was that of the church also known as Santa Maria Liberatrice, which was built on the top of the Early Christian church of Santa Maria Antiqua in the Roman Forum and eventually demolished in 1900 (Armellini 1942, pp. 527–29; Hülsen 1909, pp. 172–75). The capital, which can no longer be traced, is like the one depicted above it, except that the echinus is undecorated and there are now three continuous beads beneath the echinus rather than two, which makes it more like a standard Doric capital with its three vertically-faced annuli. The drawing is pressed right up against the sheet’s bottom edge suggesting that s that it was an addition. Given that it was drawn in a dark ink, like the three at the top of the page but unlike the one in lighter ink immediately above it (Drawing 4), it is reasonable to assume that the one in lighter ink was executed first and that this drawing and the others were arranged around it at a later time.
Literature
Ashby 1904, p. 60
Census, ID 45885
Level
Drawing
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