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Drawing 1 (top left): Unidentified Corinthian capital with an urn and sphinxes
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Reference number
SM volume 115/139a
Purpose
Drawing 1 (top left): Unidentified Corinthian capital with an urn and sphinxes
Aspect
Perspectival view of half
Scale
Not known
Signed and dated
- c.1515
Datable to c.1515
Medium and dimensions
Pen and brown ink over traces of black chalk
Hand
Bernardo della Volpaia
Notes
This two-tier Corinthian-type capital has a single row of acanthus leaves at the bottom, above which is an urn flanked by sphinxes (one shown) with wings extending upwards to form volutes. Ashby conjectured that the capital was a modern invention, since no ancient example has been found. However, this may well not be the case, since it is comparable to two others depicted on the page that are both ancient.
In style, the drawing is similar to others on this page and the one before it, and in format, it tallies with three on this page and one on the previous one, in depicting half the capital and part of the shaft. It is executed in the same tone of ink as two others on this page (Drawings 2 and 5), and, like them, shows the right half of the capital, which suggests that the three were the earliest executed on the page and perhaps derive from the same drawn source. They again depart from the more elaborate compositional conventions employed elsewhere in the codex, and so probably date from a rather later phase in production.
In style, the drawing is similar to others on this page and the one before it, and in format, it tallies with three on this page and one on the previous one, in depicting half the capital and part of the shaft. It is executed in the same tone of ink as two others on this page (Drawings 2 and 5), and, like them, shows the right half of the capital, which suggests that the three were the earliest executed on the page and perhaps derive from the same drawn source. They again depart from the more elaborate compositional conventions employed elsewhere in the codex, and so probably date from a rather later phase in production.
Literature
Ashby 1904, pp. 68–69
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