Scale
To an approximate scale of 1:6
Inscribed
.in. p [alatio]. car [dinalis]. S. Georgij. (‘In the palace of the Cardinal of San Giorgio’); [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 and compass pricks
Hand
Bernardo della Volpaia
Notes
The base is labelled as being in the palace of the Cardinal of San Giorgio, known today as the Cancelleria, and Ashby concluded that it was ancient, realising that none of the columns belonging to the palace has a fluted shaft. It is much larger in scale than the columns used in the fifteenth-century building, which is clear when it is compared to the elaborate base used for the courtyard’s upper storey which is illustrated on a different page (Fol. 82r/Ashby 136 Drawing 4). In design, it is fundamentally Attic but it is unusual in having an astragal on a raised band running around the centre of the scotia. To judge from the black chalk underdrawing, it was originally composed as an Attic base with a conventional scotia before the scotia was subdivided, the initial design having perhaps been set out in error and needing to be changed. The ancient structure of which it was once part remains unidentified. It is depicted on a page with a series of ‘Pantheon’-type bases, presumably because of its compositional similarities.
Literature
Ashby 1904, p. 67
Günther 1988, p. 338
Census, ID 46829
Level
Drawing
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