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  • image SM volume 115/138e

Reference number

SM volume 115/138e

Purpose

Drawing 5 (second row, centre): Unidentified capital with winged horses

Aspect

Orthogonal view

Scale

Not known

Signed and dated

  • c.1515
    Datable to c.1515

Medium and dimensions

Pen and brown ink over black chalk with single vertical stylus line at centre

Hand

Bernardo della Volpaia

Notes

This figurative capital features two winged horses framing a palmette. The same capital was also recorded, as Ashby observed, in a rather hurried sketch by an anonymous draughtsman in the Codex Strozzi . The version in the Codex Strozzi has a gently downward curving abacus and an upward curving astragal at the top of the shaft, which suggests that capital came from a round column, whereas the Coner version treats the capital orthogonally and does not indicate whether it belonged to a column or a pilaster. It could still be, however, that the two drawings were dependent the same original. The Coner drawing’s rather cursory handling compared with many in the codex suggests that it belongs, like the others on this sheet, to a slightly later phase of production.

OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Anon.] Florence, GDSU, Codex Strozzi, 1604 Ar (Bartoli 1914–22, 6, p. 29)

Literature

Ashby 1904, p. 68
Census, ID 46986

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