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Drawing 1 (top left): Column base from the Pantheon’s portico
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Reference number
SM volume 115/136a
Purpose
Drawing 1 (top left): Column base from the Pantheon’s portico
Aspect
Partial section with perspectival view, and measurements
Scale
To an approximate scale 1:7
Inscribed
Sub. Colu[m]na. porti/ calis. S[anctae]. m[ariae]. rotund[a]e (‘Beneath the column of the portico of Santa Maria Rotunda’); [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
This column base, as the caption establishes, is the one used for the portico of the Pantheon and it has two toruses, two scotias and twined astragals at the centre. The drawing is one of eight arranged very neatly on the page, and it is of the same format as the others, combining a section with a view, which makes it unlike an earlier depiction of the same base produced by Il Cronaca, and later ones by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and Baldassare Peruzzi, that show it in simple profile. A subsequent drawing by an anonymous draughtsman, however, has the profile accompanied by perspectival elements, although not as systematically as in the Coner drawing.
The ‘Pantheon’ base (also used for the building’s interior) was to achieve great popularity in built schemes from around this period, being employed for the courtyard of the Palazzo della Cancelleria (Drawing 4), the interior of Raphael’s Chigi Chapel (c.1514) in Santa Maria del Popolo, and the wooden model (Florence, Casa Buonarroti) of Michelangelo’s intended façade (1517) for San Lorenzo in Florence, and then by several subsequent architects such as Michele Sanmicheli in his Pellegrini Chapel (1528).
OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Il Cronaca] Montreal, CCA, Cronaca Sketchbook, fol. 2r (Günther 1988, p. 331 and pl. 2a); [Antonio da Sangallo the Younger] Florence, GDSU, 1061 Av (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 83; Frommel–Adams 2000, pp. 201–02); [Baldassare Peruzzi] Florence, GDSU, 533 Ar (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 50; Wurm 1984, pl. 75); [Anon.] Florence, GDSU, 1958 Av (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 111)
OTHER DRAWINGS IN CODEX CONER OF SAME SUBJECT: Fol. 8r/Ashby 13; Fol. 23r/Ashby 35; Fol. 23v/Ashby 36; Fol. 24r/Ashby 37; Fol. 24v/Ashby 38; Fol. 38r/Ashby 61; Fol. 38v/Ashby 62; Fol. 39r/Ashby 63; Fol. 40r/Ashby 65; Fol. 50v/Ashby 86; Fol. 65r/Ashby 111; Fol. 80r/Ashby 134
The ‘Pantheon’ base (also used for the building’s interior) was to achieve great popularity in built schemes from around this period, being employed for the courtyard of the Palazzo della Cancelleria (Drawing 4), the interior of Raphael’s Chigi Chapel (c.1514) in Santa Maria del Popolo, and the wooden model (Florence, Casa Buonarroti) of Michelangelo’s intended façade (1517) for San Lorenzo in Florence, and then by several subsequent architects such as Michele Sanmicheli in his Pellegrini Chapel (1528).
OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Il Cronaca] Montreal, CCA, Cronaca Sketchbook, fol. 2r (Günther 1988, p. 331 and pl. 2a); [Antonio da Sangallo the Younger] Florence, GDSU, 1061 Av (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 83; Frommel–Adams 2000, pp. 201–02); [Baldassare Peruzzi] Florence, GDSU, 533 Ar (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 50; Wurm 1984, pl. 75); [Anon.] Florence, GDSU, 1958 Av (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 111)
OTHER DRAWINGS IN CODEX CONER OF SAME SUBJECT: Fol. 8r/Ashby 13; Fol. 23r/Ashby 35; Fol. 23v/Ashby 36; Fol. 24r/Ashby 37; Fol. 24v/Ashby 38; Fol. 38r/Ashby 61; Fol. 38v/Ashby 62; Fol. 39r/Ashby 63; Fol. 40r/Ashby 65; Fol. 50v/Ashby 86; Fol. 65r/Ashby 111; Fol. 80r/Ashby 134
Literature
Ashby 1904, p. 67
Günther 1988, p. 338
Census, ID 46867
Günther 1988, p. 338
Census, ID 46867
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