To an approximate scale of 1:11

[Measurements]

• c.1513/14
  Datable to c.1513/14

Pen and brown ink and grey-brown wash over stylus lines, traces of black chalk and compass pricks

Bernardo della Volpaia

This unidentified capital is of very similar design, with a pair of astragals beneath the echinus, to the one drawn next to it (Drawing 1), but the measurements show it to have been considerable larger. The drawing has the hybrid format of a section combined with elements of a perspectival view, together with the slice through the top of the shaft to show an imaginary dowel hole, but very little of the capital’s exterior is made visible. The original intention, as is evident from black chalk under-drawing, was to follow the same format as the drawing next to it and depict a raking view of the capital’s left side, but the format was then changed, because the neighbouring drawing was found to be in the way.

This capital bears a marked similarity to one drawn twice in a sketchbook in Harvard that, according to an inscription, was found in a vigna near San Pietro in Vincoli in 1514, but the measurements, though similar, are not close enough to make the identification secure.

OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Circle of Antonio Labacco] Cambridge (Mass.), Fogg Museum, Inv. 1932.271, fol. 1r and 3r (Burns 1984, p. 413)

Ashby 1904, p. 61
Census, ID 45891

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