To an approximate scale of 1:30

• c.1515
  Datable to c.1515

Pen and brown ink and grey-brown wash over traces of black chalk

Bernardo della Volpaia

This Corinthian capital, drawn here frontally, has two tiers of uncarved leaves and is one of those from the third level of the Colosseum. There is, surprisingly, no other drawing from around the same period that records the capital in enough detail to show the blank disc in the place of the flower on the abacus (cf. Desgodetz 1682, p. 271). The closest parallels from later on are a more cursory drawing from mid-century attributed to Giovanni Colonna da Tivoli, and a pair in Berlin from still later in the century that depict the capital both frontally and obliquely. The Coner drawing is notably different from the others on this sheet in being less heavily drawn and unrelated to them in position, which indicates it was added during the second phase of the codex’s completion at a very late stage.

OTHER IMAGES MENTIONED: [Giovanni Colonna da Tivoli, attr.] Rome, BAV, Vat. lat. 7721, fol. 65v (Micheli 1982, pp. 97–98); [Anon. French draughtsman] Berlin, Kunstbibliothek, HdZ 4151, fols 18v and 19v

OTHER DRAWINGS IN CODEX CONER OF SAME SUBJECT: Fol. 2r/Ashby 2; Fol. 2v/Ashby 3; Fol. 3r/Ashby 4; Fol. 3v/Ashby 5; Fol. 25 and flap recto/Ashby 39; Fol. 25 verso of flap/Ashby 39a; Fol. 25v/Ashby 40; Fol. 26r/Ashby 41; Fol. 66r/Ashby 113; Fol. 83v/Ashby 137

Ashby 1904, p. 69
Günther 1988, p. 337
Census, ID 47026

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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