To an approximate scale 1:4

ad. Colu[m]nam./ troianam (‘At Trajan’s Column’); [measurements]

• c.1513/14
  Datable to c.1513/14

Pen and brown ink and grey-brown wash over stylus lines and compass pricks

Bernardo della Volpaia

This distinctive and highly elaborate base, with just one torus positioned at the top above three pairs of astragals, two scotias and a plinth, was seen, as the caption states, in the vicinity of Trajan’s Column. Ashby suggested that it came from inside the Basilica Ulpia, but it could have belonged to another building nearby, such as one of the matching libraries once flanking the column. A base of this design and of about the same size, was to be found in Raphael’s house and was drawn in elevation by Giulio Romano, although the given dimensions are not especially close. One of the same composition is also recorded in profile in the Kassel Codex, and another seen in Frascati was drawn (in profile) by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger and (in elevation) by Baldassare Peruzzi. Yet another, this time an example with ornamented mouldings that still survives on the Esquiline Hill (Schreiter 1995, p. 323), was also recorded by Antonio da Sangallo.

The ancient bases in Raphael’s house and from Frascati are both described on the drawings as ‘Ionic’, and they are generically similar to the ‘Ionic’ base described by Vitruvius (Book 3, chapter 5, 3), which has a torus above two scotias separated by a pair of astragals. Bases of this kind inspired the very similar Renaissance base designed by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger for the Ionic second storey of the Palazzo Farnese courtyard (Pagliara 1992, pp. 145–46), which consisted of a torus above two scotias and two pairs of astragals.

OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giulio Romano] Palermo, Biblioteca Comunale, Libro d’Arabeschi, fol. 1 (Prosperi Valenti Rodinò 2007, pp. 52–53; [Anon.] Kassel, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, Graphische Sammlung, Kassel Codex, fol. 19r (Günther 1988, p. 372 and pl. 116b); [Antonio da Sangallo the Younger] Florence, GDSU, 1184 Ar (Vasori 1981, p. 126) and 1182 Ar (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 67; Frommel–Schelbert 2022, 1, p. 131); [Baldassare Peruzzi] Florence, GDSU, 416 Ar (Vasori 1981, pp. 48–49)

Ashby 1904, p. 67
Census, ID 47207

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.

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