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Drawing 1 (top): Column base from San Paolo fuori le Mura
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Reference number
SM volume 115/126a
Purpose
Drawing 1 (top): Column base from San Paolo fuori le Mura
Aspect
Half section with perspectival elevation from above, with measurements
Scale
To an approximate scale of 1:12
Inscribed
in. eclesia .S./ paulj. (‘In the church of San Paulo’); [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, traces of black chalk and compass pricks
Hand
Bernardo della Volpaia
Notes
This Attic base is one of several once inside San Paolo fuori le Mura which, following the catastrophic fire of 1823, are now in ruined condition and located outside the building in a repository of architectural fragments (Krautheimer 1937–77, 5, pp. 140–41). The much-drawn bases exhibit many variations of decorative detail, but all have a plinth with faces embellished with buds, scrolls, masks and other motifs, a lower torus with a pattern of buds and leaves, a scotia with a rather simpler arrangement of buds and anthemion, and an upper torus ornamented with a wreath of oak leaves and (on some drawings) acorns. No other drawing precisely matches this one in decoration, although it comes close to a detailed late sixteenth-century depiction by Alberto Alberti.
Representing the base as a frontal view with a quadrant removed to reveal the profile is a format used for several other depictions of bases in the codex and it again necessitated an adjustment to the receding line on the left-hand side of the plinth. The format is not seen in other early drawings, although depicting the base from just a little above is a feature of a previous drawing of a similar base from Giuliano da Sangallo’s Codex Barberini (except that this does not indicate the position of a fictional dowel hole). A drawing by Giovanni Francesco da Sangallo showing half an elevation is similarly annotated with measurements, but these are often slightly different.
OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giuliano da Sangallo] Rome, BAV, Barb. lat. 4424 (Codex Barberini), fol. 15 (Hülsen 1910, p. 25; Borsi 1985, pp. 104–05); [Giovanni Francesco da Sangallo] Florence, GDSU, 1804 Ar (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 102; Frommel–Schelbert 2022, 1, pp. 206–07); [Alberto Alberti] Rome, ICG, Vol. 2502, fol. 8v (Forni 1991, p. 104)
Representing the base as a frontal view with a quadrant removed to reveal the profile is a format used for several other depictions of bases in the codex and it again necessitated an adjustment to the receding line on the left-hand side of the plinth. The format is not seen in other early drawings, although depicting the base from just a little above is a feature of a previous drawing of a similar base from Giuliano da Sangallo’s Codex Barberini (except that this does not indicate the position of a fictional dowel hole). A drawing by Giovanni Francesco da Sangallo showing half an elevation is similarly annotated with measurements, but these are often slightly different.
OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giuliano da Sangallo] Rome, BAV, Barb. lat. 4424 (Codex Barberini), fol. 15 (Hülsen 1910, p. 25; Borsi 1985, pp. 104–05); [Giovanni Francesco da Sangallo] Florence, GDSU, 1804 Ar (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 102; Frommel–Schelbert 2022, 1, pp. 206–07); [Alberto Alberti] Rome, ICG, Vol. 2502, fol. 8v (Forni 1991, p. 104)
Literature
Ashby 1904, p. 63
Census, ID 45692
Census, ID 45692
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